Inversion
by Gabzalabza
Summary: Revised Summary: Whatever happened to Azula after Sozin's Comet? This is all about the redemption of a 14yr old girl who was broken by a lust for power and given far too much responsibility... AzulaxOC Temp HIATUS
1. Seditious

**Chapter One—Seditious**

No one had mentioned who exactly had been sent to the prison under the Palace. But everyone knew. Azula, deposed Princess of the Firenation and former Firelord, hated her new settings. She had only ever been to the Palace prison's to gloat over people she'd put there. Her ruthless streak, while undeniably present, did not extend to torture. Such barbaric measure's were better left to prison guards and people trained for such things. The work was dirty and Azula was far less inclined to take part in something so disgusting. However, her reputation always seemed to inflate the stories of her cruelty, inventing wild scenarios of blood and pain. Sometimes the grotesqueness made her cringe. Now, however, she was glad she had never stopped the rumours. Here, in the prison cells, it helped with people keeping out of her way.

Zuko hadn't seen fit to keep her in solitary like he had with their father. Azula didn't know whether to be grateful or insulted. Did he really think that a place like this—and looking around, she had to admit it was hardly impressive—would keep her for the rest of her life? She made a bet with herself that she would escape within the week and take back what was meant to be hers. It _had_ been hers until her traitorous brother had interfered. In the end, everyone had betrayed her, even her own family. She, not Zuzu, was supposed to be Firelord, beloved among her people. Her defeat at the hands of the waterbender had been humiliating. Mai's words came back to haunt her from that fateful day at the Boiling Rock, _"You miss calculated."_ Yes, she had. And she would never do so again. She could only rely on herself. Azula needed no one. A plan had begun to formulate in the devious mind of the young princess. There were ways out of here; she just had to find them. Her thoughts were interrupted by rancorous sniggering behind her. She clenched her fists, trying to control her anger. If she lost her temper again she would no doubt be locked in solitary for a week and then she would lose the bet.

Both the guards and the prisoners would whisper covertly when her back was turned. She knew what they were saying. It was the usual jokes and disbelief, "What is _she_ doing here?" or "That's princess Azula" then a chuckle. Mostly it would end with "I've heard what she did. Dishonourable" and "Yeah. Traitor. Keep clear of that one. We wouldn't want to be tainted by her dishonour." They would never say any of it to her face, however. None of them had the guts after the first man to dishonour her. It wasn't like she had _killed_ him. His injuries had been extensive, however; extensive enough to discourage anyone from going toe-to-toe with her again.

More often than not, she would ignore them. They were beneath her anyways. But every now and again, the constant flow of insults would insight a rage she just couldn't contain. It usually followed sentences involving the words "dishonour", "Firelord" or "Avatar". Any one of them irked her. _She_ should have been Firelord. _She_ had killed the Avatar in Ba Sing Se. And in no way could _anyone_ associate her with dishonour. That was for her brother. She had never been a traitor. She was the one who had been betrayed. Azula had stood by her nation, serving it until it became her downfall. _No_. Not _downfall_. Her right had been stolen from her. Her throne. Her crown. She had lost them all. Even the love and respect of her father. It had been evident that he thought her incapable the moment he had sent Li and Lo to speak with her the day she had banished the Di Lai. Losing his respect. Of all the things that had happened to her, that was the one she grieved the most. All her life her father had loved her, had respected her. She had always been above Zuko; her fathers favourite. Now, she had nothing to show for it.

She shook the thoughts away coldly. It would do her no good to be dwelling on what had happened. She would escape this cell and reclaim what was hers. Then he would love her again. She had a part of a plan now anyway. She knew what she could do and how she would do it. There would be no miscalculation.

After almost six months of being in a prison cell, Azula was barely recognisable as the Firenation princess. This would aid in her escape. She had lost a lot of weight and with it, strength and stamina but she could overcome these. She _would_ overcome these. She always did. She still had some of her firebending, though she was not permitted to use it even to heat herself in the cold nights at the prison. She could bet that it hadn't even been her brother who had given that harsh directive, he was too soft, but rather the callous guards who escorted her to and from her cell.

What they all should have realised was just how powerful she was. Her firebending had no equal now that her father was unable to firebend. As such, no could have comprehended just what you could do with fire alone. And Azula was the Queen of ingenuity. Just like the blind earthbender had invented mental bending, and so Azula had invented the technique that would allow her to escape before anyone was the wiser. Well, in the name of complete honesty, it wasn't that she invented it as such, she had just thought of another use for lightning and blue flame other than combat.

Metal, it seemed, was an earth substance melted down in huge furnaces before being melded into shapes. Without the heat of blue flame and lightning, melting metal would have been impossible for a firebending but Azula had been practicing. If the cooks and cleaners had looked closely enough they would have noticed a peculiar number of mental balls gathered around the corners of the room. Further investigation might have found that they resembled different utensils.

During meals, she had perfected the technique that would let her quite literally walk through bar and locked doors. She knew the layout of the prison like the back of her hand. After all, she had lived in the Palace halls all her life. Even Azula had been a child and played games like hide-and-seek with Zuzu, Mai and Ty Lee. _Mai and Ty Lee_. The thought of her former best friends was particularly painful, especially considering the way they had betrayed her. She supposed she should be grateful. Without their betrayal she might never have realised that trust was a weakness and people could never be fully relied upon. The only one she could have any faith in was herself. The old adage, _"If you want something done right, do it yourself"_ came to her mind. She smirked at the appropriateness of the saying. Everyone had failed her. She had no trust left to give. Now, she would rely solely on herself. She could do it. She had to do it.

With a new determination, Azula turned to the task at hand and more practical matters.

As the entire prison complex was completely underground—something designed to keep firebenders from the sun—it wasn't like she could just blast through a wall and run. No, she had to be clever, patient and stealthy; things that Azula excelled at.

She wouldn't break out yet, she wasn't quite ready. In a few nights the officers would be having an annual dance. The prison would only have a skeleton crew. No extra guards wandering the halls, but also no doors open. At all. Even the on-duty guards would be locked into their station, a predicament that Azula actually liked. It kept everything quite. Contained.

All she had to do was take out the guards in each room simultaneously so no one could call in the escape or raise the alarm. All the doors would be locked securely behind metal bars. The guards stationed inside the prison wouldn't actually have any keys on them. Fortunately, that wouldn't be a problem with her new technique. There was one small problem: burning through the metal doors would take time and the guards would be sure to notice the glowing red and melting door.

With that kind of warning she wouldn't be able to get past the first floor without an alarm being sounded. She didn't have a plan for that possibility. Instead she was relying on the guards on the lower floors to be slack and slightly inebriated due to the party they wouldn't be able to attend. She had also observed last time she had been down here that the guards lack a certain amount discipline and attentiveness.

She also knew that it was standard prison procedure—not officially, of course—to dump the newbie's with the jobs that no one else wants to do (e.g. looking-after-dangerous-prisoners-that-have-never-tried-to-escape-in-a-dingy-prison-while-a-party-is-going-on type of jobs). So, in reality, she would only have to fool a couple of newbie's. There was really no other time to attempt this and she really wasn't inclined to waiting a whole year to try again. Her lack of a proper plan didn't really bother her, Things would work out. They always did. For her, at least.

She let a small manic grin spread across her lips. Everything was about to work out in her favour. She could feel it.

Most of their hour long lunch break had already passed and Azula hadn't touched her meagre rations. She couldn't help but grimace at the unidentifiable mush of what was suppose to be food on her plate. She never had much of an appetite anymore. She only really ate enough to stay alive. She didn't need the extra energy as the brief walk she was allowed in the mornings and afternoon's was never long enough to do any sort of physical exercise.

Her once beautiful face as now gaunt and pale, all the life and fire that had once graced her golden eyes had dimmed. Yet something in her spirit, beyond her despair and disillusionment, was still that determined core that had defined her since birth.

Clenching a metal knife in her fist, she shielded the movements with her body and slowly heated her hand. She felt the metal soften until she was able to mould the knife into whatever shape she wished. The trick was to keep her hand at a steady temperature. Too much heat and the knife would liquefy, too little and it wouldn't bend. She frowned a moment, rolling the ball of metal in her palm. Perhaps that was the answer to her dilemma.

Like any door, the prison doors were held in place by two locks and four hinges on one side. If she could somehow refine her firebending to a shorter, hotter, steady flame, then she could simply slice through the hinges and push the door open. It would give the guards less time to react and it would be almost impossible to notice. Perfect. Flawless. Now all she had to do was wait. The sound that signalled the end of the lunch break resounded across the room. Azula didn't even flinch at its impossibly loud gonging. She had a purpose. Something to strive for and attain.

Carelessly she tossed the small metal ball into a corner and stood. Finically brushing the creases from the front of her prison garb, she moved towards the door of the prison. Half way there, a violent shove from beside her made her topple to the side before she caught herself just before hitting the door. Her quick eyes flicked over to the perpetrators face, he was openly smirking. Azula took a deep breath and straightened as the men moved into line and were escorted down the hall towards the cells. Remembering her plan, she resisted the urge to throw a fire ball that would have thrown her into solitary and earned her another year in this grungy place. It took her a full ten seconds before steam ceased to come from her nostrils and she was able to walk towards her cell without cold hatred filling her veins. It was a near thing. Only the possibility of a blotched escape plan had saved that mans life.

The guard roughly shoved her down the hall towards her single cell. She had noticed that the guards were considerably more forceful and harsh towards her. She bore the indignation and humiliation silently, secure in the knowledge that it would only be temporary. She made extra sure to get a good look at the man. Pity. He seemed like a veteran and probably wouldn't be present during her escape and no way was she bungling this for some petty revenge on a small time prison guard.

A sudden shove sent her careening into her cell and she glared at the smirking guard as he slammed the door behind her. One second thoughts, petty revenge was looking pretty good.

She needed to kill time and focus her thoughts for the up coming escape. Meditation worked rather well, even without the flames. Usually, she wouldn't resort to it, but this was a special case. She hadn't really needed it before and now she needed to concentrate. Settling down into her preferred pose—legs crossed, arms resting on her knee's—she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She began to focus her thoughts on her surroundings, starting with what she could hear. The clatter of metal against metal, the jangle of keys, the perverse language thrown at the guards by the prisoners. Her sense of hearing heightened until she could concentrate and distinguish each guards' tread scrap across the metal deck. Slowly she shifted to her sense of smell, taking in all the odours offered by the prison. She didn't really enjoy that one much but it certainly cleared her head. Next her focus shifted to her muscles. Consciously she relaxed each and every one of them. Finally she could be alone with her thoughts.

Unfortunately for Azula, they promised no rest at all.

--0()0--

Two days later, Azula was buzzing with anticipation. Tonight she would put all of her hard work together to finally escape this prison. It was time for the evening meal just as the sun was setting. Despite the unappetising menu, she forced herself to eat all of the food knowing she would need the strength it offered. She went over the plan in her head for the twelfth time that day, making absolutely sure all her bases were covered. She was now confident that this would work, that tonight she would walk free of this prison and never come back. Ever. She barely heard the bell sound but reacted to it automatically. Sliding from her chair she made her way to the door, ignoring all the bumps and shoves thrown her way. She had acted the part of the perfect angle today making extra sure the guards could see no reason why she should be locked up. Her plan was going off without a hitch. The usual guard—with the usual gruffness—escorted her to her cell and firmly locked the door behind her. Azula settled down on her hard pallet to wait. The guards would be leaving any moment to head down to the party.

Sure enough, only a few minutes later, the lamps snuffed out. Azula put her ear to the floor and cold hear the faint whirring as the doors and gates were locked down with only a few mandatory guards. Escaping at this time would have been impossible if Azula hadn't invented the art of metal bending with fire. Finally the echo of gears stopped. Silence. She pretended to sleep for an extra ten minutes, making absolutely sure they had all left for the party before slipping out from under her blankets and padding to the bars. The cells were so dimly lit that she could barely make out the cells across from her. Perfect.

Placing her heated hands on the bars, she slowly warmed them, being extremely careful that the red glow couldn't be seen. The metal continued to grow hot until the metal dripped onto the floor. Finished there, she moved to the bottom of the bars, cautiously checking the hall way. Soon the metal was dripping through her fingers and onto the floor. Oh so carefully, Azula shifted the swinging bar-door to one side and inched her way through. Part of the way, a resounding clash made her freeze. But as no one cried out or sounded the alarm, she relaxed and inched forward.

It felt so good to be out of there. A rare smile grew on her lip at the pleasantness of so small a thing. Quickly but silently she made her way to where she knew the first set of doors were. As she knew there would be, a portcullis had been lowered a meter and a half from the door. Again she set to work on the bars, carefully melting them. She was fully aware that all a reasonably intelligent prisoner had to do was look up from their cell and piece together the red glow coming from the doorway and she was through. As she stepped through the make-shift door, she felt a tinge of unease as begin between the bars and door reminded her way too much of her cell. Pushing the ridiculous thoughts aside, she studied the doors make. The hinges and lock were clearly visible. She hoped that the overhang around the door would obscure her actions as she coxed a small, fine blue flame from the end of her finger. Surgically she sliced the hinges from the door. Once done she grasped the inside handle and heaved _up_ slowly, keeping the door from scraping along the floor.

Inch by steady inch she managed to wedge the door open wide enough to peer into the next room. The sight that greeted her made her smirk. The guards had obviously been playing a game involving cards, dice, money and alcohol. Lots of alcohol. In the short hour since the party had started, they had managed to drink themselves under the table. A few were still conscious, but nothing she couldn't rectify. She slipped though quickly and stopped, a genuine grin forming on her lips. Well, well. It looked like her guard had missed out on the party after all. He sat slumped against the opposite door, mumbling under his breath. Even the sound of his comrades being forced unconscious didn't rouse him from his stupor. It wasn't going to be as much fun tormenting him while he was like this, but she would take what she could get. Slinking over to him, she sunk to her knees, looking coldly into his small, brown eyes.

"You know," She started amicably; "I would've much preferred it if you had been completely sober during my escape."

Her words seemed to rouse him somewhat.

"That way you would remember the humiliation of me escaping on your watch." She sighed and gave him a cruel smirk. "Oh well. I'll just have to settle for the knowledge that you'll have a massive headache tomorrow and also be in trouble with you superior."

She had the satisfaction of his eyes growing wide with fear—_Yes, fear me_—before he collapsed to the ground from a well-placed fist to his skull. Azula scowled, wondering why she hadn't just killed the men and therefore eliminated witnesses to her escape. He would suffer more by remaining alive. Yes, that was it. He was going to get the scolding of a life time. Besides, his death wasn't crucial to her escape. She hadn't killed meaninglessly so far, why start now? Shaking her head she rose from her crouch and swept the room with her sharp gaze. The door was still partially open. She closed it. She liked to leave a tidy scene and a bit of a mystery. She set to work on the next set of bars. She was quicker this time as she was sure no one could see her working. The bar swung off in less than a minute and she stepped through, pulling them securely behind her. She went to work on the door.

Five rooms later, she started to find herself nearing the exit, a fact that was made clear by the cool air that began to seep under the doors. She hadn't seen the outside in almost six months and was looking forward to having sky overhead instead of metal and iron.

She snorted at her own ridiculousness. Such thoughts were not going to get her throne back. Better to focus on things that could actually make a difference. It wasn't until she was just 'unlocking' the last of the doors that an alarm sounded. One of the guards must have woken up. She _knew_ she should have just killed them. She worked quicker, her heart pounding in what was genuine fear, a feeling she had only felt as many times as she had fingers on one hand. She didn't want to go back into her cell. They couldn't make her! She wouldn't let them.

One hinge to go.

The alarm continued to resonate through out the prison. She could hear doors locking down as the prion went into emergency shutdown mode. They were going to pinpoint how far she had gotten using the trail of melted doors she had left behind her.

Finally the fire cut through the last piece of metal. No point in trying to be stealthy now. Besides, beyond this door was the ONLY way in or out of the underground prison. She was so close now. Abandoning all subtlety, Azula placed a firm, lightning aided kick at the door and sending it shooting into the opposite wall, taking most of the guards in the room with it. She felt a twinge of guilt as she realised that at least one of the guards behind that sheet of metal probably wouldn't survive.

What was _wrong_ with her lately? First she spares the guards lives and now she felt guilty about killing some peasant nobody? She needed to gain some perspective. These people were expendable. They were mostly _peasants_, for Agni's sake.

She quickly dispatched the two remaining guards and rushed to the last set of bars and door. Faster than she ever had before, Azula superheated her hands and grabbed the metal. The bars grew warm, then hot until finally liquefying and dripping to the ground. She repeated the procedure with the bottom of the bars and finished in record time. Hastily, she scrambled through, not bothering to pull it shut behind her.

Having an idea, she quickly bent to where the portcullis met the floor and welded the spikes into the ground. That done, she pulled the bars closed, re-welding them as well. Only then did she go to work on the doors hinges.

Hearing shouts and booted feet echoing on the metal decking, Azula lost patience with the welding at the third hinge. Instead, she gave a lightning aided kick to the weakened door, blasting it away in much the same manner as she had with the last one.

The first thing she noticed of the outside world was that it was bright. Very bright. Her next observation was that the moon was shinning in the sky. That didn't make sense. There were stars, too.

She then realised that it was the dead of night and the bright light came from the firebenders surrounding her. Great. So she had just gotten out to go right back in? She almost sighed in defeat before her nature took over

No.

No way was she going back in there. And Azula always got what she wanted. Using her cold anger to fuel her, Azula spread her arms, long blue flames shooting forth, consuming. Overwhelmed, the firebenders back peddled quickly, some of the flames snuffing out in their haste. Not completely satisfied with their distance. Azula opened her mouth, blue flames licking forth, long than the ones emitting from her fists.

In the split instant that they were distracted, she pushed her fists downwards and used the fire to thrust herself high into the air. From her vantage point, she could see the shoreline. There was no point in head over into the Palace now. Zuko would be well informed of whom had just escaped ad be prepared for her arrival. If anything, he was probably on his way here now. As much as she hated to admit it, Azula didn't think she could take her brother on in her weakened state. She was barely able to keep flying like she was. The technique was difficult and required a lot of concentration.

She needed to disappear. Then when Zuko least expected it, she would be there, ready to take back her crown. It grated her that she would be forced to live like everyday peasantry. She was a princess of the Firenation, after all. But there was nothing she could do about it. And she hated that. _One day,_ she swore to herself as she let the hot air take her further and further from the prison. _One day, Zuko, when you aren't so protected. I'll be there when you are vulnerable._

--0()0--

There was really only one course left. It galled her like no one would believe. Or perhaps they would. It had been ten days. Only _ten_ days and her idiot brother had managed to drive to the edge.

Apparently he needed to be awarded more credit than she thought. No. Where did that thought come from? It was probably the efficient troop commanders from her time in power or simply dumb luck that had tightened the net. She had refused to leave the Firenation mainland that first night and now her hand had been forced. She wasn't _wrong_, as such. She was never wrong. But she had underestimated the lengths Zuzu would go to get her back.

Honestly? It was rather refreshing to be chased. All she had to worry about was her own movements. It was full of deception and cunning and she loved it. She had her brother had been playing this deadly game for a while but for once, she was the prey.

The first night she had 'acquired' some peasant clothing from nearby villages. It had taken her almost half the night to find clothing that suited her body shape and was colour co-ordinated. Honestly. The poor people of the Firenation knew nothing about proper fashion. There hadn't even been any silks on their lines. In the end she had gone for a pair of black pants and boots (couldn't go wrong there), a deep red tunic with gold trimming and a black cloak that hid her features. Not that it was really necessary. Her time in the prison had made sure that she was practically unrecognisable unless she ran into the guards from the prison.

Unfortunately, by the second day when she was spotted in the market place, she realised Zuko had thought of the same thing. _Damn it_. It had been a frantic hunt from that moment onwards. Zuko seemed to be able to predict her movements, know them before she did. She supposed it was his time chasing the Avatar that had given him an intuition when it came to finding people.

That was okay. Azula was also well adverse in the chase and capture of fugitives. So far it had been rather fun. Until she realised something. Her uncle must have been advising. Their trap had been sprung.

She had also 'acquired' a map of the Firenation and she used it to plot movements. Only now did she realise that the entire time she had slowly been herded towards the northern shore of the mainland. She had a choice to make. If she hadn't realised a trap was being delivered, she probably would've taken a ferry eastward to one of the smaller Firenation islands. Doing that would've taken her further from the capital but allowed her to stay in Firenation lands. But she couldn't do that. She was sure that troops on any of those islands would be alerted to the possibility and have plenty of time to lay a trap. No. That wasn't the way to go. She would either go north-east into the Earth Kingdom and the Firenation colonies or she could go north either into the Earth Kingdom or beyond into the frozen wasteland tundra's of the Northern Water Tribe.

Being a Firebender, she had no desire whatsoever to be stuck in a giant bowl of ice. She would go north, but only as far as the Earth Kingdom. The ship would no doubt stop at towns along the way and that would give her the chance to escape properly and bide her time.

So, that was what got her here now. Zuko's damn stupid luck. He wasn't supposed to be like this. _She _was the lucky one. The favourite. A prodigal Firebender. But now, here she was about to sail off into what could very well be her exile.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She shouldn't be thinking like this. She would be back one day. Soon. She could feel it. The ship she was about to board was massive. That would make it easy to track but harder to actually find her in it. She was sure she could get lost with the crowd quite easily.

But another thing was that she couldn't afford to actually board with the other passengers (literally or otherwise). They surely had pictures of her everywhere. One sharp eye and her cover would be blown. Things just seemed to get more and trickier all the time. Nothing was going her way. _This isn't how it's supposed to be_. She had resolved instead to stowaway. A Firenation ship surely couldn't be going _that_ far into Earth Kingdom and Northern Water Tribe territory.

She hid behind a casket of barrels searching for any way onto the vessel. The sides were smooth metal, allowing no hand or foot-hold that she could climb. There were no windows, nothing.

Despite these rather large setbacks, there was something else that hindered her. Something rather important. During the thrill of the hunt, her muscles had been boosted by shear will and the occasional adrenaline burst. Now that she was close to the end, she could feel the fatigue from the too many missed meals and the constant activity after the months being locked away. She was hungry and tired. Hopefully being on a ship might allow her to rest a while and regain her strength.

Something moved in front of her and she ducked low. Then she noticed it was a crane lifting crates and stowing them on the ship. The crates had been taped together and a tarp thrown other the top. It was clear these goods were to be subject to the weather. She took a closer look at the barrels she was hiding behind. They too were crated together but were lacking a tarp. Perfect. Obviously these were to be stored below.

Without hesitating, she pulled the cork out of one and tipped it to the side, allowing most of the water to flow onto the moist ground. Once it felt about a third full, she pried the lid of the barrel out, surprised that it lifted so easily. Luckily she had lost so much weight or she might not have fitted into such a crammed space. Ducking down into the cold water, she pulled the lid as tightly behind her as she could. Now all she had to do was wait.

It felt like forever but it had probably been only a few minutes when she felt the barrel lift beneath her. An unusual feeling of fear assaulted her. What if she was dropped? What if the chains weren't strong enough?The fear made her muscles freeze until she felt a slight bump from landing safely on the deck. She felt movement. The barrel tipped. The thud on the hard deck was painful and she breather water. Choking, she almost panicked. Instead, she calmed herself and managed to roll until her face was free of the liquid. Once there, she closed her eyes and attempted to enter a somewhat calm state through meditation.

The barrel started rolling and Azula with it. It thumped down what she supposed would be stairs and continued on its way. She had been right. This ship was HUGE. And she somewhat regretted going for anonymity instead of comfort. The barrel twisted and turned so much that she couldn't seem to get her bearing. All she could determine was that it wasn't a ship layout that she was familiar with.

Well, _of course_ she wasn't familiar with it. This was a supply and refugee vessel. She had always travelled on a private ship of a Fire Navy vessel.

Eventually, the rolling stopped and she was settled into place. The footsteps disappeared. There was a clang of metal against metal and then the jingle of keys.

Wait—the jingle of _keys_? Where, exactly, had they locked her? Counting slowly to one-hundred, Azula bided her time.

She heard nothing. Slowly (mainly because her muscles were cold, weak and cramped), Azula pushed against the top of the barrel. It had been sheer luck that they hadn't put her upside down. The lid finally came away with a pop. Azula couldn't scramble out of the barrel fast enough. And when she had, she wished she was back inside. The roof was less than a meter from her head as she sat on top of something wooded… She lighted a small controlled flame in her hand. It took all her concentration to focus just that much. Once she was sure she had a steady light she looked about and couldn't help but gasp.

She sat on the top of other barrels. Their lids dipped sharply in before flattening out and it made her thighs ache to sit on them. They stretched all the way to the back of the room which she estimated to me only about three by two meters. She was situated in front of a door with no window, just a flat smooth surface with no handle. It was only identifiable as a door by the defined door shape made by the metal plating.

The only inconsistency on the walls smooth surface was a very small ventilation shaft. It was so small there was no way she could fit any part of her body besides her hand inside.

The door had no hinges or locks present. Nothing.

She did note, however, that barrels weren't the only thing in with her. From the amount of food rations in the corner, Azula guessed that she was on some sort of aid ship. It was standard procedure for each aid ship to put everything a small village or town would need in one storage room. Then, as they went from town to town all they had to do was unload one room at each village. It was smart, but it also meant that door wasn't going to open until they came to a village that needed supplies.

She needed space. Lighting as big a fireball in her hand as she could, she threw it at the barrel she had come out of. It burst into flame. What she hadn't thought about was the dangerous smoke that would come from such an action. When the realisation hit her that the one ventilation shaft wouldn't be enough, her eyes widened and quickly tried to put the fire out with her bending. For some reason she just couldn't seem to find the strength required for such a move.

Hastily, she uncorked another barrel and heaved it over so it fell on the flames. The water leaked and drenched the wood. The fire stopped.

The smoky smell lingered in the air and she longed to feel the cool ocean breeze on her face once more.

Tears leaked from the corner of her eyes and Azula quickly scrubbed away the odd liquid. She couldn't remember the last time she had cried. Blaming it on the hormones she sniffed once before gathering the half burnt barrel from the floor and stuffing it between the intact barrels and the ceiling. That done, she settled on the floor too tired to scramble across the barrels to the food-side of the room.

Leaning against the cool wood she closed her eyes. Fatigue began to take over and she couldn't seem to move. Her body no longer responded to any of the commands she gave it. Giving up, she curled up and let herself drift into an exhausted sleep.

**A/N: Yes, my friends, this is the first chapter of my Azula-loving story. I really feel for the darling girl. I wanted to give her a good note to end on as it were. If you haven't read my profile, you probably should. If you can't be bothered, I'll just put what I said here. **

**I wanna hear what YOU think about Azula. Her personality quirks and so on. Watch the episodes that show her character again and tell me what you think. Is she just a heartless witch? Or is it more complicated than that? So, send me a review. Tell me what you think**

**Oh, and I'm always up for my own stupidity begin shoved in my face. Anything at all that you think I did incredibly badly whether it be character personality, punctuation, spelling, paragraphing, etc… let me know.**

**Thanks.**

**Luv ya!**

**Gabzalabza**


	2. Actions

Chapter 2—Actions

**Disclaimer: ****I don't think it says anywhere that we have to disclaim this stuff but it seems to be the popular thing to do. So me no owny. And blah, blah… blah, blah.**

**Chapter 2—Actions**

--0()0--

Azula didn't know how long she slept in the dark. She had no way of judging time. It was unnatural. All she could do was sleep. She had no energy for anything else. Even the few provisions that she had managed to unseal wasn't enough to revitalise her to what she had once been. She had never felt this weak and helpless before and she didn't like it. Not one bit.

She supposed it had been days since she had first came aboard. She was too weak to even open another barrel of supplies. In her fragile state, her firebending had left her almost completely. She couldn't even make a spark. Her sheer helplessness scared her no end. What would she do when the door finally opened? She didn't want to go back to prison. She would kill herself before it happened. And after her escape last time Zuko would be sure to lock her in the deepest darkest dungeon in the Fire Nation. Just the thought of those walls so close made her shiver.

Since she had no firebending, she had no light at all and wherever she reached out she would come into contact with rough wood or smooth steal. There was no room for her to stand or lay flat. She couldn't stretch her legs or back. She was bruised, battered, sore, tired and hungry. She wanted the reassurance of warm fire in her palm but she couldn't get it to ignite no matter how hard she concentrated.

It felt like the end to her. No one was coming for her except with a pair of handcuffs and a one-way ticket straight to jail. She didn't know anyone she could trust, no one cared and no one would help her. She was stuck. And she was dying.

The only thing that kept her going was the short-term hope that one day the door would open and she would somehow manage to gain freedom. Her ambitions had shrunk somewhat in the last few days, she had to admit, but at the same time she longed for those small things more than anything in the world. _If only_ the door would open. _If only_ she could somehow get her strength back. _If only_ she could regain that part of herself that was lost when her firebending abandoned her. Zuko could wait. The Fire Nation could wait. Her _revenge_ could wait.

But it wouldn't wait long. No. Not long. One day. One day. The phrase resounded in her head, intending to give her strength. Instead, she felt nothing. Her purpose for living had been sucked away with Ozai's demise. Despite how it seemed, she too, had craved Ozai's love and affection. Her mother had feared her but her father had seemed to understand. He seemed to know why she did the things she did and loved her for it.

Now all that she had was gone. Why, then, was she still here? Even if she did manage to kill Zuko and take back her throne, what then? Ozai was powerless. Forever doomed to being a non-bender. An inferior.

Azula gave a mental shake. Why was she thinking this? What was _wrong_ with her? It must be the fatigue and weakness. Yes. That was why. She closed her eyes again, wishing to just sleep. Everything was just too confusing. She would feel better after a short nap.

--0()0--

"Lieutenant Zhi, are we still on course?" The young man at the helm glance back to see his captain making his way down the command deck. "Yes, sir. We'll probably be docking at the last village in just over an hour."

"Good. I want you to make sure that everything is ready for our arrive. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to be."

"Of course, Captain." He gave the older man an uneasy glance. "Sir?"

"What is it lieutenant?" The captain didn't _sound_ angry, just tired.

"Well, I was wondering, sir, why, exactly, are we sending supplies to villages so far from Fire Nation territory? There are no colonies and I'm sure the people—"

The Captain cut him off with a wave of his hand. "While the war is over, not many of the people trust us, I know. But they also can't survive by themselves after all that's happened. The Earth King can't feed everyone and neither can the Northern Water Tribe. We are the only ones who have managed to keep our prosperity and therefore providing aid to these places is our responsibility."

Zhi mulled over the words for a moment. It was true. While the Fire Nation hadn't been unscathed, it was nothing compared to the devastation that the other kingdoms had endured. He supposed this was part of the restoration effort, especially for isolated communities. War no longer stopped supplies from reaching remote places so it was far easier to help small towns and villages.

The Captain, not waiting for a reply said, "I'll take over here, lieutenant, why don't you go and organise the men and supplies so we'll be ready to go."

"Yes, sir." He promptly turned and left the command deck heading for the stairwell that led to the lower decks. He had previously been serving in the Fire Nation army until Firelord Zuko had started sending a good portion of his naval ships and crews around the world on aid missions.

He didn't mind the post, really. It was quite, uneventful and ensured he would make it home to his petite wife and daughter at the end of the week. His daughter was turning five next month and would attend school in the summer. He was very proud of her. Already she could bend fire and play with the flames. He loved watching her go through the routines he had taught her. She was so gorgeous. He couldn't wait to get home and hold the two most important people in the world to him.

The lieutenant made sure to visit each of the supply crew members to make sure they knew that they would be docking very soon. He also whispered to them that the Captain wanted this to be a quick stop. No dilly-dallying in the town.

Most of the crew were of a similar mindset. Going from port to port for the last month had affected them all. Lastly, he headed down to the storage rooms. They had all been emptied bar one. He heard the siren go off that signalled that they had docked.

Quickly he motioned his supply team over before taking out his keys to unlock the door. He fiddled a moment, trying to find the right one. It was tricky because all the storage keys were on the one ring. It was ridiculous, really, but practical. Finally he came up with the right key.

He inserted it into the lock and pulled as he turned. The door swung open on well-oiled hinges but the sight that greeted him made him want to retch. Well, the sight and the _smell_. An overwhelming stench of human waste and filth filled their nostrils. The supply men automatically covered their noses, some looked a little green. The smell emanated from a pile of rags bundled at the foot of the door. Was that a _body_? Sure enough he could see a slender arm protruding forth.

Zhi knelt down and rolled it over. The face was gaunt from starvation but the eyes were closed. The feminine features gave her gender away. Her eyes being closed was a good thing. When someone died, it was usually with their eyes open unless they died in their sleep. He felt her neck for a pulse. It was faint but present.

He sighed, trying to breath out his mouth. "She's alive."

He heard a gasp. "No way. This door hasn't been opened since we left the Fire Nation. How could she still be alive?"

He looked over his shoulder. "Well, she managed it somehow. But by the looks of this it was a near thing." He bent down to lift her.

"What are you doing?!" A young, horrified voice cried out from behind him.

He frowned at him. "Are you kidding me? We have to get her to a medical centre somewhere."

"You're not going to _carry_ her, are you?"

He scowled and scooped her up. "Yes." He headed off down the hall way. "Get someone to mop in there and sort out the supplies. Find someone who can help her, I'll look after her until you do."

One officer dashed off to do as he said. The rest just stood around the doorway not even hiding their repulsion at the girl.

She was so light in his arms he wondered when she had eaten last and why she hadn't been able to get into the food supplies. Unfortunately, the ships last doctor had taken a small team into the last village they had stopped at and was going to be picked up on their way back through. But the journey there would take at least a few days. The village they had just docked in was the only one for miles in the frozen landscape as far as he knew. Hopefully the Water Tribe members in residence had some training in the medical arts.

He couldn't just carry her around in the soiled robes she was wearing. She was so small in his arms, as light as his little girl back home. He hesitated outside the communal bathrooms. He was unsure of how old she was… it was probably safest if he took her back to his quarters. He walked past there and took a right down the hall until he came to his suite, number 305. He managed to get the door open using a weird combination of feet and elbows. Despite the fact that he wanted to help the girl, he couldn't help but hesitate to put her down anywhere. In the end he sacrificed a patch of the rug to the filthy bundle. Then he quickly closed the door and disappeared into the bathroom. Being a lieutenant, he was given the luxury of actually having a bathtub in his suite unlike the common soldier or officer who had to rely on the communal bathrooms.

He heated the water in the tub with his hand until it was hot but hardly scalding. Then he ever so gently undressed the young girl before placing her in the water. The warmth seemed to wake her up a bit and one of her eyes fluttered.

"Shh, careful now," he soothed to her. "It's gonna be just fine, sweetie." He brushed her oily hair off her forehead. Her golden eyes were dull and unfocused.

Grabbing a bar of soap he proceeded to wash her from top to bottom. Twice he emptied the dirty water and refilled the tub before he was satisfied with her state of cleanliness. Wrapping her in a warm towel he set he down on the pillows in the corner of the room that he used to entertain.

"Now, to find you some clothes…" Hmm. It was a real dilemma. He looked over at her, trying to guess her size. "They might fit…" he muttered under his breath before striding to his cupboards and pulling out a warm red tunic and soft dark red pants. She was about the same size as his wife and he almost always had some of her clothes lying around in his room. These ones would do nicely, especially considering the near-freezing temperatures outside. They had silk inlay specially designed to keep the heat in the cold out. They were his wife's favourite pair. He shrugged. She would understand they were going to a good cause.

Unfortunately he couldn't find any suitable undergarments. He supposed he would have to wash and dry her original ones. He _might_ be able to get the stink out of them, but it would take a bit of effort. He emptied and refilled the tub this time with water at scalding temperatures before dumping her undergarments in to soak with a bar of soap.

He noticed her start to stir on the pillows and walked over to see if she was alright. From her piercing golden gaze it was clear she was pure-blooded Fire Nation. But from her appearance alone he couldn't really tell anything else. While her eyes were open and a little more focused, she still didn't really seem alive to the world. Unfortunately, he didn't really know if there was anything else he could do for her. She was mal-nourished, weak and on the brink of death. She _needed_ a healer.

He gathered her hair and grabbed a brush from his dresser. Sitting down beside her he warmed his hands to dry her hair as she brushed it. It was long and a thick, luscious black. It hadn't been cut in a while but he was hardly qualified to attempt such a thing.

When her hair was dry and knot free, he got back up to check on her undergarments. After a bit more scrubbing on his part they were practically clean. He wrung them out then steam dried them. Despite what the other nations thought, firebending had more uses than simply warfare. Like drying clothes, for example. Well, really, the only element that couldn't do that was earth.

The undergarments dry and ready he went back to dress the girl. He was actually amazed she had managed to stay largely unconscious this entire time. It made it easier and far less embarrassing on both their parts. That finished, he set her back down again but this time wrapping her in a warm blanket and taking the towel to be washed and dried.

A knock sounded at his door.

"Come in." He called out, hoping it was a doctor.

An officer strode through and stood at attention.

"Please tell me you've found a doctor…" Zhi knew he sounded a little pathetic, but a girl's life was at stake here.

"Not exactly, sir."

"What do you mean, 'not exactly'? You either have or you haven't."

"Well, sir, it seems there aren't any doctors in this village."

Zhi nearly swore for the first time in years. "There's no one who can help her?"

"Well, the villagers did mention that a small Water Tribe settlement wasn't far from here. But they also said that the settlement had managed to stay out of the war and probably wouldn't appreciate any—"

"Where is it? Does it have a healer?"

The officer hesitated. "Yes, it does. It's about three miles east of our position, off the coast of the Earth Kingdom."

"Thank you, soldier. I know the Commander won't like me taking the whole ship for one girl so I'll just borrow the steam boat." He turned and started rummaging through his wardrobe, looking for clothes that could brave the icy seas of the north. "I'll be back by dusk, I expect. You're dismissed."

"Sir!" the officer saluted before turning and heading out the door.

Zhi managed to pull out a warm-looking fur-lined coat but couldn't find anything else that looked remotely adequate. _Damn it!_ He wasn't expecting to _need_ another coat. He hadn't even been expecting to need to go more than a hundred meters from the ship.

Making a decision, he wrapped the girl in the furs. He would just have to suffice with firebending to keep warm. Luckily he was a rather proficient firebender and probably wouldn't have too much of a problem keeping the cold at bay.

Ready, he gathered the girl into his arms and head out towards the back of the ship where the steam boat was kept. The tail was already down and a blast of icy cold wind froze him to the core. Maybe this wouldn't be as easy as he first thought.

Climbing into the sheltered cockpit, he bundled the girl in a corner. Then he turned to face the window. Folding his hands one over the other in front of his chest he took a deep breath and concentrated. Steam shot from his nostrils and heat from his body, effectively warming the small space in a matter of moments.

Once he was comfortable with the temperature, Zhi turned to the controls. Seating himself in the chair, the boat hummed to life with a few practiced movements. He manoeuvred it skilfully down the gangplank, settling it in the icy waters with a slight splash.

He had driven the steam boat numerous times, both as part of the Navy and during his time running aid missions around the Earth Kingdom. Under his sure hand, the boat began to cut steadily through the water. The Water Tribe settlement he was looking for was just over three miles away. Not a huge distance and he estimated their ETA to be about thirty minutes. Hopefully the girl could last that long. He also hoped the village would be reasonably tolerable and the waterbender in a good mood. He had heard that women of the Water Tribe could be particularly vicious when they thought their home or loved ones were in danger. He would need to prove to the healer that all he wanted was to leave the girl in their care—

A violent shudder ripped through the deck under his feet and almost threw him to the floor. "What the—?" He peered over the controls and gave a small sheepish grin. While he had been lost in thought he had forgotten that the water he sailed in was treacherous and dotted with icy flows. That was what could happen to someone who wasn't paying attention.

Zhi picked himself up off the floor, glad he hadn't brought any subordinates with him to remember the embarrassing incident. Resuming control, he made sure to be extra attentive to where, exactly, he was going. After that, the trip was relatively eventless. The settlement would be coming up any minute…

--0()0--

Azula barely had any concept of time, or of _anything_ for that matter. The last thing she remembered with any clarity was being so very tired and resting for a moment on the floor of the darkened storage room. There were some vague sensations soon after that; lights and muddled voices. She wasn't sure if she had been dreaming that or not… it was all a little unclear.

In the part of her brain that was still rational, she reasoned that the stress and fatigue of the last couple of weeks had finally gotten to her weakened body. By Agni, she hated that word, _weak_. She was never weak. Though she was forced to concede at that particular moment that she didn't seem to be quite her usual self. She expected that her strength would return at any moment and she would be able to figure out what was going on. The utter lack of vigour in her limbs reminded her too much of when Ty Lee had betrayed her at the Boiling Rock and blocked her chi. It was from that day that her life had seemed to just fall apart around her.

If she couldn't trust friends she had known since her childhood, could she really trust anyone? Being feared was the only reliable way. She wasn't willing to put herself on the line like that. It would only be trouble.

Slowly, Azula began to become aware of her surroundings, though it was a gradual process. Sound was the first to permeate her deadened senses. A slight rumbling, what she swore was an engine. _Well, that's not so unexpected. After all, I know I'm on a boat_. The sound was rather loud. Not deafening, but enough that it temporarily fuddled her brain. Listening intently, she could just make out the gush of water spraying against the side of something firm and… metal?_ Well, that's not so weird either. Boat, metal, duh_.

Something was off about the picture, though. Last she knew she had been locked in a storage compartment surrounded by wood and metal not… _fur?_ And she was warm. Odd. This wasn't what she expected. Perhaps it was a trap! Had she been caught? Azula forced open her eyes and flinched when searing light brushed her sensitive pupils. After being in the dark so long it hurt something terrible.

She blinked a few times, clearing her eyes as tears streaked down her cheeks from the sudden brightness. Slowly images began to form which compounded the thought that something wasn't quite right. She was absolutely positive that she hadn't been able to see a thing for the last few weeks, where was she?

Grey metal plating, icy blue seas but warmth? It was then something caught her eye. A man stood at what she assumed to be the helm. He was dressed in standard Fire Navy uniform. Black boots with black pants and red and black plate armour. The only thing missing was his helmet. On his shoulders she spied the appropriate stars for a Lieutenant. _A Fire Navy Lieutenant? Oh no._

Had they found her after she had… fallen asleep? What had happened? She didn't remember _anything_. And if so, why wasn't she in a cell? She tried to stand, to do anything, but her limbs were still too weak and unresponsive.

She couldn't be caught like this! It wasn't fair! She wanted out. She wanted out _now_! "S-Stay back!" She tried to sound strong and in control but her voice quivered much to her disgust. She wasn't weak like Zuko!

The Lieutenant glanced away from the control, surprise written across his features.

Then relief.

Azula hesitated. If anything she expected fear. Why didn't he fear her?

"Oh, good, you're awake. When we found you in the storage room we thought you weren't going to make it." He slowed the boat to a halt and turned taking a step her.

She scrambled away from him as quickly as her limbs would allow. "Don't come any closer!" She tried desperately to find the spark of fire that had always been inside her but to her horror nothing happened. She had thought that if she had been able to get out of that room then her firebending would return to her but it seemed to have no such disposition.

No firebending.

Zhi saw the beginnings of panic on the young face and moved forward in an attempt to soothe her. "Calm down. You're safe here."

He saw her eyes harden and he wondered what could've possibly happened to her to make it possible for her to feel that way.

"If you move but a step closer I'll kill you."

Despite her fierce words, all Zhi saw was a little mal-nourished girl, eyes wide with fear. It activated all his parental protectiveness and he longed for nothing more than to take her in his arms and tell her she was going to be fine. But something told him that it wouldn't go down too well right at that moment. Instead, he sat across from her on the floor, attempting to make her feel as at ease as possible. "How are you doing?"

Azula blinked. Would someone who had captured ask such a question? She didn't think they would care enough.

A moment passed before Zhi realised she hadn't quite grasped the question. "Are you feeling any better? It looks like you haven't eaten in a while." He gave her a somewhat sheepish grin. "Sorry but I didn't think to bring anything with me."

Azula ignored him and the biting pain in her stomach at the mention of food. Instead she studied her surroundings carefully. This was a small steam boat. She neither heard nor saw any other person on board. Odd. Did they really think that one man could keep her for as long as it would take to reach the Fire Nation?

Out the cockpit window she could see whirling icy waters and clear skies. Wait. _What?_ The Earth Kingdom waters didn't have ice. _Water_ _Tribe_. "How far exactly, are we from the Fire Nation?"

Zhi frowned. "We're as far from the Fire Nation as you can get. This is Water Tribe territory far east of the Water Tribe itself, though. There's supposed to be a village around here somewhere…"

Azula's brain was functioning a bit slower than usual at that moment and it took her a while to process what he had said. "Far _east_?" _No, no, no, no, no!_ This wasn't part of the plan! It she escaped now or even took control of the boat it would take her weeks to get back to the Fire Nation! Why couldn't things go right? It was if all her luck had been sucked out of her on the day of Solzin's Comet.

Her face turned a deathly white and her eyes clouded. She had to get back to the Fire Nation. She couldn't stay here. Willing her limbs to move, she clutched the wall for support and pushed herself to her feet. Sweat lined her brow; her breathing became laboured and heavy.

She tried to force her trembling legs forward but she stumbled. Knowing she couldn't catch herself she watched helplessly as the floor rushed up to meet her. Before she made contact, she was held aloft by strong firm hands.

Zhi carefully levered her upright, supporting her around her waist. He winced when he felt her ribs through the silk of her tunic.

"I told you not to touch me!" Azula hissed, pushing ineffectually at his iron grip around her waist.

Zhi grimaced at her feeble attempts to dislodge him. He knew she would feel better if he did, but she would probably break a few bones and that would be intolerable. "Sorry, sweetheart, but I don't think you could manage on your own at the moment."

"You don't know what I'm capable of! Let me go!" Her struggles intensified and Zhi had to wonder where she got the strength from.

"Why don't you rest over there? We'll be coming up on the village soon and its cold outside." He picked her up despite protests and name calling and deposited her on the furred coat.

She bit and scratched whatever she could get her hands on. Zhi winced under the assault. Her frail form couldn't do this. She was going to hurt herself.

"Please, calm down, sweetheart, I don't what you to hurt yourself."

She didn't appear to hear his concern and continued her struggled and cries. He pleaded with her repeatedly, trying to restrain her gently but that only made it worse.

In an act of desperation, Zhi seized her neck and squeezed the cartilage near her spine. The girl's eyes rolled back in her head and she fell forward into his waiting arms.

Zhi let out a breath as he felt her pulse strong and steady in her wrist. He repositioned her so she was lying on the warm deck with the fur coat covering her form.

He stood back up. Dusting himself off, he retook the helm. The natural currents and propulsion from the use of the engines had propelled them further along. He checked to see if the village was in sight and to his relief he spied what looked to be a small settlement nestled among the ice.

He took extra care approaching the settlement, knowing that they people there mightn't be too receptive to a Fire Nation vessel, no matter how long the war had been finished.

The boat bumped against the icy flows until he managed to dock it somewhat at an outcropping from the island. He reluctantly left the warmth of the helm and sunk into the soft snow. He took the iron chain that was usually for docking at a port and anchored the tip of the chain solidly into the ground. It would hold except under the worst of weather.

He went back into the boat and scooped up the girl trembling from the cold that had seeped through the fur. Taking his precious cargo, he headed inland towards the village and a healer.

**Dun, dun, duh! Little does he know… Anyways that's my faithful friends! I had meant to make it longer but school caught up w/me.**

**One question: should I keep Zhi in the story or send him home? Your choice.**

**Tell what you like, what you don't like and what you despise. Honesty is the best policy and all. Luv to hear from you. Promise more will happen in the next chptr. Perhaps. And we'll be seeing a new character. I still have to fix up a few quirks with him so we'll see how it goes.**

**Which will come next Wednesday hopefully.**

**Luv ya! I now have Literature, yay! :D (That is a class here in Australia that revolves around interpreting literature. Go figure. Currently we're doing one of my favs: Antigone by Sophocles and our next SAC (like a test that goes towards your ENTER score an ENTER is the numbers that get you into Uni) is a Creative one where we have to try and write a scene like Sophocles and use his characters, style and themes. It's a bit scary but lotsa fun. It'd be more fun if I didn't have to worry about how it would affect my grades…**

**Cya!**

**Gabzalabza**


	3. Laid Bare

**Disclaimer: If you vote for me as Empress of the whole World I will… do nothing for you and own Avatar!! Muwhahahahaha!! (How's that for an election promise, eh? Pretty darn typical, ne?) But until then… it sux.**

Yes, I realise this is 50million yrs l8r than I said it would be, but… I'm not very good w/ deadlines and a lot has been going on at school. It was the time of the semester when all the teachers pile SAC's on top of your head and asks you if it hurts. If you say, 'yes' they chuckle and say, 'good!' Gotta love my teachers, though. So, yeah, gomen nasai.

BTW: 'Masuke' is said ("Ma-sue-kae"). If there are any fluent Japanese speakers present, please feel free to correct my pronunciation. I don't like getting things like this wrong.

Anyways, on with…

**Chapter 3—Laid Bare**

"_Those who rely on brute strength alone, find themselves alone without what made them strong."  
--Anonymous_

The trek to the village was longer than it had looked from the sea. Zhi was just thankful that the day was clear. He probably would've gotten lost otherwise. Zhi had never really spent much time in the snow. During the war he had been stationed in the Earth Kingdom and hadn't ventured near the Water Tribes. Now he was finding himself grateful for that small blessing. While earthbenders were formidable in battle, at least the terrain was familiar and similar to the Fire Nation. Here, water was everywhere and made the ground treacherous and slippery. He had already slipped numerous times; managing to catch himself before his cargo hit the ice. But really, it was only a matter of time at the rate he was going before he broke something.

To his relief, the village was getting closer. Well, the _village_ itself wasn't actually going anywhere but the point was… Agni, he was tired. Shaking ridiculous thoughts from his mind, he trudged forward. He needed to get there quickly. The girl in his arms wouldn't last long in this weather. It was still freezing no matter if the sun was out.

Zhi glared at the sky, wishing he was back in the Fire Nation where it was warmer. The girl shifted in his arms, moaning. Well, that was a good sign. He had been afraid momentarily that the blow to the head he had given her had done more damaged than he had originally thought.

As a crested a rise, Zhi squinted, trying to eliminate the glare and wishing he had brought his helmet and visor. He estimated he was barely a mile from the village. Good. His arms were getting sore. Light or not, anything could get heavy given time.

Letting out a deep breath, he proceeded down the slope, determined to get to the village so the girl could get help.

Zhi himself knew absolutely zilch about nutrition, health or anything more complicated than administering a bandage. Yes, he had served in the Navy, but on a ship there was always a doctor nearby and the Army Drill Sergeants hadn't thought first aid to be an essential part of his training back at the Naval Academy. As a result he was left deficient of knowledge in the area of any kind of healing.

That was one of the reasons this aid mission had been a real eye opener. To his astonishment, healing people was actually a lot more difficult than he had ever imagined. All things considered, he was quite content to leave doctoring to the professionals.

Missing a step down the steep ravine, Zhi tumbled down the snowy embankment. He curled his body about the frail girl, protecting her from the worst of the tumble. The icy surface caused him to roll and slide much further than if he had fallen on a rocky surface. Once he had slowed to a stop. He lay there a minute, regaining his breath.

Groaning, he rolled over. _Ouch_. Ice was sharp, it turned out. He could feel a multitude of cuts mostly on his unprotected face. But some had penetrated his light armour and padded clothing leaving scraps and bruises all over his body.

He checked the girl thoroughly. She, too, had her share of cuts, but she had been protected from the brunt of the fall. He exhaled gratefully. She didn't need any more injuries to add to her collection. She was going to have a hard time recovering as it was.

Zhi struggled to his feet. Cold seeped through the newly opened rips in his uniform and he grimaced. _Great_. He diverted as much of his energy to keeping warm as he could. He blinked as he looked back at the cliff he had tumbled down. It was considerably further away than it had been, meaning the village was considerably closer.

In one way he was thankful for the fall as it had taken him only a few seconds to travel the distance that would have taken him almost half an hour. It sort of balanced out his annoyance, he supposed.

Before Zhi could take a single step forward he heard a crackling that made his blood freeze. _Cracking ice?_ And it was getting closer. Moving fast. Trying to jump out of the way without jostling the girl in his arms, Zhi thudded to the ground, twisting awkwardly. _What the—?_

Looking down, he could see that his feet to his knees were frozen solidly in ice. _That's not normal…_ A moment later he mentally slapped himself. _Of course it's not normal, you idiot. You're only a couple hundred meters from a Water Tribe settlement. Water doesn't act normal here especially when it's being deliberately controlled by waterbenders._ Zhi really couldn't believe himself sometimes. Maybe the freezing weather was messing with his brain.

"Hey!" He struggled to sit up, keeping the girls limbs from trailing on the ice. Without the breath of fire like he was using she would freeze for certain. Instead of trying to stand, Zhi grasped one of his frozen legs and heated his hand, hoping to melt the water.

Obviously his firebending was a bit of a giveaway. No sooner had he freed his right leg than snow started to shift. A blue and white blur leapt the drifts on Zhi's right. It moved faster than any human could possibly travel. Directly in the path of what Zhi assumed to be a waterbender, ice smoothed out forming a perfectly flat surface.

Zhi bet that there would be no way he could stand on that ice without the aid of firebending. The waterbender, however, seemed perfectly balanced and used the ring to slide around Zhi and crouch behind him.

An ice dagger appeared at his throat.

"What are you doing here, firebender?" The voice sounded surprisingly young, not much older than the Firelord himself. But it was harsher, colder.

Zhi gasped as he felt the knife prick his throat. Training from his time in the Naval Academy took over and his body automatically warmed to counteract the ice dagger. If it tried to slice him, it would melt right off his neck.

Zhi hoped the waterbender wouldn't try it. His ice dagger melting would not inspire any sort of confidence or feelings of control. And that was exactly what Zhi didn't want. The villagers needed to trust him to some extent and to do that they needed to feel in control of him and the situation.

Instead, Zhi took a few steadying breaths, trying to control himself.

"I was told that I could find a Water Tribe healer here." He shifted slightly so the girl in his arms was visible. "Please, she's dying."

After less than a moment's hesitation, the knife disappeared. Snow crunched as the waterbender came and knelt in front of Zhi. The mans face was obscured by a dark blue cloth over his mouth and nose but his eyes bled concern as he gazed at the bundle of furs.

"Let me see." He beckoned towards the young girl and Zhi acquiesced reluctantly. He didn't entirely trust the stranger, but the Water Tribe was what he had come for and he supposed one of them had to relent in the suspicions and it might as well be him.

The waterbender looked her over briefly careful not to expose her too much to the sub-zero temperatures. As it was, her lips were already blue and her face white.

Her pulse was faint and her breathing shallow. Frowning, the waterbender shoved her back into Zhi's arms. His eyebrows twitched. "What are you doing?" He asked as the waterbender stood and turned. "You can't leave her like this!"

He threw Zhi a glare over his shoulder. "I'm not. I'd never leave someone in such a state, no matter what Nation." Crouching low, he spread his arms to the side, palms facing outwards. Then he rose slowly, slightly bent at the knees. The snow solidified into a thick ice sheet beneath Zhi's feet. His left leg remained frozen in water, but frozen to the ice sheet not the ground which he was grateful for.

The makeshift sled moved forward slowly then picked up speed. Zhi ducked down to shield himself and the girl from the worst of the bone-chilling wind and snow that blew over them.

Admittedly, Zhi had never really seen a waterbender in action before. He had never been part of a team to confront the warriors in battle. Before that moment he had thought them the weakest of the benders; inferiors below the earthbenders. But right at that point in time, Zhi had to concede that he may have misjudged them. Perhaps.

Of course, this wasn't exactly a fighting style, just a clever technique to move quickly through the snow. Practical in life, not war. That aside, he couldn't fault its usefulness.

The settlement was in sight and larger than Zhi had expected. It seemed they had more benders here than Zhi had first expected. They had to, to be able to construct such a city. And it _was_ more a city than a mere settlement. It followed typical Water Tribe architecture, as far as Zhi knew, in its myriad of soft curves and defined corners. The streets and houses were enclosed by a high wall, a wide moat surrounding it. He guessed that the people hadn't seen a lot of Fire Nation attacks. If they had, the city layout might have been more carefully thought through. In this, he guessed it had been designed _before_ the war had begun. As it was, the curved city walls made it easy for an army to surround and pummel it to the ground in the space of a day.

Zhi shook his head to clear the thought. He wasn't here to think like a soldier. He was here to get this girl the help she needed and be back at the ship before dusk. Glancing up, Zhi noticed for the first time just how low the sun was on the horizon. Hn. Maybe he wouldn't be getting back tonight. It was stupid to try and navigate Northern waters in a little boat after dark. Where the larger shops could cut through ice flows, his steam boat could not.

Hopefully, the Water Tribe wouldn't be too averse to having him stay the night. From the rather violent welcome he had received, he had his doubts as to whether or not that was likely.

The solid wall was coming up faster than Zhi thought was healthy. Confident that the waterbender would stop before they ran into steel-hard ice, he tried not to worry. But as they approached, his guide showed no indication of stopping or even slowing. Defying the wind pressure, Zhi reached up and tugged the waterbender's jacket. "Hey." the waterbender ignored him. "Hey! Aren't you coming up a little—?"

His words were cut off as he covered his head, bracing for impact. It never came. He felt cold pressure on his head and arms, then… nothing.

Opening one eye cautiously, Zhi— "Ah!" Two large blue eyes peered at him curiously from behind a swath of dark blue cloth. Apparently the waterbender had decided Zhi's lack of a reaction was worth observing.

The eyes crinkled in mirth. Zhi scowled as he glanced around and came to the conclusion that his guide had used waterbending to speed through the ice wall. He rolled his eyes and sighed. _Duh_.

Grumbling, he brushed the snow from his clothes. "You could've warned me…"

The waterbender chuckled. "It wouldn't have been quite as amusing, though, you have to admit."

Zhi shot him a glare. "Amusing for _you_ maybe."

"Oh, c'mon, as if a firebender would be afraid of a little ice. Admit it. If you had needed to you could have melted through that wall in no time."

"Not _that_ quickly!" _Gee, this guy has a high opinion of firebenders!_

The waterbender shrugged. Breathing in and out slowly, he gestured with one hand. The cold ice melted from Zhi's leg. Flexing it, Zhi grimaced as the muscles stretched and contracted. Once it felt stronger, he shifted his grip on the girl in his arms and stood.

He was surprised to note that the area the waterbender had brought him to seemed completely vacant of anyone else.

Noticing the on his face, the waterbender said, "We are right behind the infirmary, if you must know. Let's get her inside, okay?" Turning, he started walking around the wall to Zhi's right.

Zhi was startled to remember exactly why he was here. How could he forget the girl near death in his arms? He hurried along behind the waterbender, following him across the powdery snow to a domed entrance.

Inside were rows of slightly raised platforms of ice that Zhi assumed was the Water Tribes equivalent of beds. Only one other was occupied. The beds—occupied or otherwise— were completely bare of anything. Not even a rug to keep the patients skin from its cool surface. Surely that wasn't practical. And certainly not healthy.

The waterbender raised a hand in greeting to the other waterbender and occupant of the room. "Hi, Kiku, Makati." The woman addressed Makati bowed in greeting but softened the formality with a smile. The women knelt by a boy who was seated on the low bed kicking his heels against the solid surface.

Light blue eyes set in a worn and creased face lit up upon seeing Zhi and his guide. "More strays, then, Masuke?"

_Masuke_? Ah, so that was his mysterious waterbender's name. Huh.

Masuke chuckled. "You know me; I can't seem to keep out of trouble. How you doing, Kiku?"

The other patient was a young boy maybe ten or so. His arm was bandaged in a sling. "I'm almost done. Makati says by this time next week I'll be out playing again, no problem!"

"Good for you! Remember, try not to strain that arm between now and then, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He grumbled, rolling his eyes. Obviously this wasn't anything new to him. "You've only told me like fifty times already!"

"And every time I don't you manage to strain it somehow!" Masuke retorted in good humour.

Kiku pouted for a second before spying the bundle in Zhi's arms. His eyes lit up brightly and Zhi flinched.

"Hey! Who's that?"

Masuke was startled away from the friendly banter and forced to focus on the immediate problem. "Oh, yeah. This here is a firebender with a little problem. He—, actually I don't know the story." He gave Zhi an indifferent shrug. "I guess I'll find out later on." He rubbed his hands together. "Now, Kiku, no more distractions, please, trying to work now."

Kiku rolled his eyes, grumbling under his breath. Zhi wasn't paying enough attention to catch his words but they mustn't have been nice because Makati frowned and swiped the boy over the head. Kiku scowled and rubbed the back of his skull.

Masuke knelt before the bed and gestured for Zhi to put the girl on the benche to his left. He hesitated. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

Masuke's brow crinkled at the centre in what Zhi would class as a confused expression. "Why ever not? I thought that was why you brought her here."

"I brought her here to heal, not freeze!" He blurted out, a little angry that the young man hadn't picked that up.

To his surprise, the waterbender chuckled. "She won't freeze. This bench is especially designed for healing and I can regulate its temperature through waterbending." He gestured again, this time impatiently. "Here, put her down."

Zhi studied him critically.

"Do you want her to die?"

Well, no. Of course he didn't. Moving forward, Zhi placed her as delicately as he could, minding her fragile state.

Laid out flat on the bench, Zhi came to realise just how poorly off the young girl was. His wife's clothes actually looked bulky on her slender frame and his wife wasn't big by any standards.

Masuke was frowning, his eyes thoughtful. Zhi looked at him anxiously.

The waterbender noticed his gaze and flicked his eyes upward in acknowledgement. "I reckon I could heal her. But it will take weeks for her to regain her strength."

Zhi nodded. "She'll be okay then, won't she?"

"In time, yes. Don't worry I don't think there will be any permanent damage." He reached out to run his hands down her side and grimaced at the hard angles of her ribs against his palm. "She'll need constant care and all the right nutritional meals. Luckily, we just got a new lot of supplies of fruit and vegetables from the Earth Kingdom."

Zhi's shoulders slumped in relief. He didn't know why it affected him so much, but hearing that the girl he had gone through so much trouble to save was going to be fine topped everything except the moment his wife had said she would marry him. Oh, and probably the day she told him she was pregnant. And then when Cixi was born.

Masuke raised his flattered palms over the girl's body calling water to cover his hands. Zhi was fascinated to see the water turn a glowing blue when it made contact with the waterbender. He had never seen a waterbender heal before.

Noticing the abrasions on her face, Masuke placed his water-covered hands over them. To Zhi's astonishment, the cuts sealed up and disappeared. _Wow_. Gee, that would have been handy during the war…

Finished there, Masuke continued to examine her.

Zhi found his hands shaking with fatigue. He hadn't counted on it taking that long to reach the Water Tribe. Or that hard. He had never walked on snow and ice before. His calves were burning. Zhi braced himself against the wall, shaking his head to relieve the fuzziness that had clouded his mind.

He felt two petite hands support him. Zhi looked down, surprised, into the kind face of Makati.

"Why don't you come and sit down for a moment, dear?"

Zhi nodded acquiesce and allowed her to guide him towards one of the beds opposite the young girl. Thinking he was going to have to sit on the freezing ice, he was relieved when Makati pulled a furred rug from a shelf and spread it for him.

Zhi gingerly seated himself on the edge, glad to get off his feet for a moment.

"Let me have a look at that for you."

Zhi looked down at Makati, surprised. "Huh?"

"Your leg, dear. Let me see your leg."

Glancing down, Zhi saw that blood had stiffened his pants and was caked around a wide gash on his calf. "Oh, I barely remember getting it." Well, that wasn't strictly true. He remembered getting it, but his concern for the young girl had overridden the pain and he had sort of… forgotten.

Makati's hands glowed blue like Masuke's. "That's alright. In this freezing weather it's easy for the cold to numb the pain." She placed her hands over it and closed her eyes, brow furrowed.

It was an odd feeling. He'd expected it to be mind-numbingly freezing but it was actually rather pleasant. The pain receded from the site quickly. Curious, Zhi glanced down at his leg and saw that the wound was shrinking under Mataki's skilled hands. That's cool.

After only a few seconds, his leg was completely smooth with no sign of the gash.

"It was only a superficial wound, dear; easy enough to fix." Makati removed her hands from his leg and smiled, her eyes crinkling up at the corners. "Now, just let me do a quick examination and get those few cuts and abrasions I can see and you'll be as good as new in no time."

Zhi nodded his assent and watched with rapt fascination as the waterbender proceeded to heal his wounds.

"While I'm doing this, why don't you explain what happened, dear."

Zhi gave her a quick glance and saw the keen intelligence in her light blue eyes. _Ah_. It was a test. They didn't completely trust him—rightly so—and wanted to make sure he wasn't here for any sort of seditious reasons. Well, that would be easy enough. He didn't have an ulterior motive.

"I'm not sure of all the details, but…" He took a breath. "I found her earlier today locked in the cargo hold of our ship--"

"A Fire Navy ship?" Makati asked sharply.

"It was. But a lot of the Fire Navy ships these days are used as aid vessels. We were on a supply run around the northern Earth Kingdom. Our last destination was a village—Kyra—do you know it?"

Makati nodded as she moved her hands to a rip in his sleeve.

"_They_ were the ones that told us we could find a medic here."

"What kind of aid she doesn't have a doctor?"

Zhi grimaced. "The town before Kyra had a bit of an epidemic. Our last doctor took a team to help out. We were going to pick him up on our way back."

Her only reply was a cryptic, "Ah…"

Hearing footsteps, Zhi turned to see Masuke approaching them, his eyes crinkled and brow furrowed.

Thinking something was wrong, Zhi asked, "Is she okay? Did something happen?"

Masuke shook his head. "No, no. She's fine now. But I did find something interesting that I wanted to ask you about."

The grim tone to his voice made Zhi flinch even though he had no idea what he was implying.

Makati let go of his arm and took a step back. "What is it, Masuke?"

"I was finishing my examination and I found a bruise."

Zhi raised his brow. "A bruise? Well… she did take a nasty tumble down a ravine." He sheepishly scratched his head. "I tripped."

Masuke snorted. "An interesting story. But it doesn't explain _this_ bruise. It's on the back off her head."

Makati gave him a sharp look. "Near the spinal cord?"

Masuke nodded. "Exactly. Care to explain?" He folded his arms and gave Zhi a stern look. The dark blue mask across his face gave him a mysterious and dangerous air. Masuke wasn't a small man. His muscles were built on defined lines and Zhi estimated that he was at least six-foot tall. And he was a waterbender. Zhi was good, but he wouldn't want to go up against this boy—man—in a battle. Not at all.

He gulped. "It may look bad—I know it does—but there's an explanation, I promise."

"Yeah? I believe it when I hear it, okay?"

"Sure, sure." Zhi grimaced. "It happened on our way here, actually. I manned a steam boat from our ship and during the trip she woke up." Zhi remembered back. The girl's eyes had widened in fear and confusion. Her mind had seemed muddled and she hadn't been thinking straight. "It was the first time since I had found her and I hadn't had time to talk to her. She panicked, I guess. I couldn't control her. So I, uh, pinched her neck." Seeing their stares, he protested. "I didn't want her to hurt herself! I was very careful."

"You're lucky up didn't damage her spinal column! It was a close thing, my friend."

"If you had been in that situation, you probably would have done the same thing. I don't exactly carry sedatives in my pockets!"

Masuke sighed. "Fine. I'll let you off this time due to… extenuating circumstances. But I'll be asking the patient when she wakes up just to make sure that's _all_ that happened."

Zhi allowed himself to relax a little. "Yeah, okay. So, will she wake up soon?"

Masuke considered for a moment. "She's sleeping to preserve her energy at the moment. She should be awake in a couple of days or so, no problem."

Hn. A couple of days… He couldn't exactly stay here for that long. He wanted to go home and see his wife and little girl. He had been travelling for a month already and was more than ready to leave. But… the ship would probably leave without him if he wasn't docked by tonight. The captain had been very eager to go home and would probably leave Zhi to his own devices. Oh, such loyalty and camaraderie! From the look of the sky when he had entered the infirmary, there was no way he was getting back tonight. _Damn it_.

And… he threw a glance at the girls sleeping form. He wanted to help her. He felt responsible for her. He couldn't leave her yet…

"I'll stay with her and look after her until she's better."

Seeing the waterbenders' startled looks, he added. "If that's okay with you. And your village."

Masuke threw a glance at Makati who gave him a stiff nod in return. "That should be fine."

"Uh, no offense or anything, but shouldn't you ask your elders or something?"

Masuke smirked but it was Makati who answered. "My husband was the elder in this settlement and since he died a few years ago I have taken up the honour."

Zhi was confused. "Isn't the Northern Water Tribe patriarchal?" He had heard a little about the customs of the Water Tribes. Not a lot, but enough to know their system of governance.

Masuke answered. "Yes, it is. But we don't have many strong ties with the Northern Water Tribe. This settlement was here before the war started. We managed to stay out of it so far unlike our sister tribes. As such, gender equality is a lot better here. It perhaps isn't as good as the Southern Water Tribe but it's definitely better than the North."

Zhi nodded his understanding. It was much the same in the Fire Nation. While it wasn't a popular idea for women to join the army, it was not unheard of. After all, their own Princess Azula had been a firebending master and Zhi had heard of Lady Mai's battle prowess.

He was learning all sorts of interesting new things today.

"Well," Masuke said abruptly. "If that's all… Oh, one more thing, what about your ship?"

Zhi snorted and shook his head in disgust. "They'll have left already, probably. The captain was eager to get home."

Masuke nodded. "Okay, that's fine." He looked around. "You can stay in the infirmary tonight if you like. Keep an eye on the girl."

"Wait, where will you be? You know, if something goes wrong?"

He pointed down the far end of the infirmary to an archway with a furred rug hanging across the entrance. "I have an office just through there. Call me if anything happened, alright?"

Zhi was relieved that help wouldn't be far away and nodded. "I'll do that."

Masuke nodded, "Good." He turned to Makati. "You can go for tonight, Makati. Oh and take Kiku with you."

Zhi through a startled glance at the boy who was still sitting calmly on the bed.

Makati nodded and turned to Kiku. "Come along, darling, I'm sure your mother's expecting you home for dinner." Kiku hopped off the bed, grinning. Makati turned back to Masuke. "I'll have someone send you some food from the kitchens."

"Thanks. That would be much appreciated." Masuke dipped a bow to her, Zhi following suit as she led Kiku out the door and across the snow.

Zhi sighed and walked back over to kneel beside the girl. Her face was much less pale now. Colour had come back into her cheeks and her lips had turned a deep rose red. All-in-all, she was looking much healthier. Zhi gave Masuke a grateful glance. "Thank you so much for what you've done for her."

Masuke seated himself on the other side from and gave a slight smile. "It was a pleasure. Hopefully I'll be able to get her up on her feet in a week or so. I'll do my very best."

Everything suddenly seemed worth it to Zhi. Travelling all this way through treacherous water and snow. Even missing the ship back to the Fire Nation and delaying the reunion with his wife and child.

It was totally and completely worth it because the girl in front of him was going to be fine. Just fine.

**Yeah… I needed to end this chapter and uh, I wasn't being very inventive. I was running out of time to write it since I was adamant to post it today. Thnx for being so patient. And hopefully I'll have the next one up in the next two weeks. Don't waz, Azula should b up and about in the next one. Promise!! Well, up and about relative to her condition…**

**Oh, and If anyone knows how to spell 'lept' tell me! It's an issue of debate in our household. Try and be nit-picky in ur reviews. If there's something mis-spelled or a wrong word something equally dumb that shouldn't happen. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my grammar, punctuation and spelling. I'd like to make things RIGHT for the next readers. Thnx 4 ur help.  
**

**And I have a nice little conspiracy theory for this story. I do love a good conspiracy and misunderstandings between characters. Don't waz, tho, I'm a hopeless romantic at heart.**

**Anyways, plz review I do luv getting them and I'll send u a reply, Promise!**

**Luv ya!  
Gabzalabza**


	4. Friends

**A/N: Yo! It's been ages, hai? Well, my humblest apologies. I just finished my VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) Exams and am a free spirit (to some extent) for the next year until I enter Uni. I had my graduation.. oh, it was a while ago now, I suppose. It was awesome fun but a bit sad too. I really enjoyed my two years at Senior College and all the awesome colleagues and teachers who were there. I was so proud watching all my fellow students get their certificates and awards. Our duxs of the school was a young girl named Carli who had worked so hard all year and got something like a 98.6 (out of 99.95). She was in my Literature class. I ended up with a 76.1 which is plenty enough to get me into Adelaide Uni. I won't be going straight into Psychology (96.4), but I can do my Arts course (65.2) and then swap over. One of my best friends got an 88.2. I was so very proud of her. She had worked so hard and totally deserved it. **

_**This chapter is dedicated to all the hard-working year 12 students of 2008. You all did so well regardless of the number you scored or the grades you received. After all, it IS only a number. I hope that you are proud of your efforts and pray you have an excellent year in 2009 whether you're working, taking a GAP (like me) or going on to further study. I'm so proud of you all.**_

**So, speaking of a GAP, I have one year to finish this story for you all. I'll do my best to live up to your expectations. Arigato for your patience.**

**Ja ne!**

**Disclaimer: A notice from the Empress of the Whole World who will soon be Queen of the Universe: I own everything. Duh. But out of the goodness and grace of my heart, I will let Avatar temporarily remain in the hands of its creators. But be warned! It is not forever! Muwhahahahahaaaaa!!**

**Chapter 4—Friends**

---*0()0*---

Apparently, Masuke wasn't as organised as Zhi had first thought. The man had seemed so decisive and, well… organised. In contrast to his first impression, which is always important, it turned out that he had some reports that Makati had needed, oh… three weeks ago? The water bender had scratched his head sheepishly as he tried to remember exactly _when_ they had been due. In any case, the medic had promptly excused himself to some unknown area of the office to get some desperately needed work done.

Zhi had seated himself beside the girl with the intention of watching her sleep. It wasn't very interesting. People sleeping, that is. As he watched the steady rise and fall of her chest, Zhi found himself fighting off drowsiness. Where before adrenaline and concern had kept it at bay, now with nothing to distract him it was back full force. Leaning against the icy wall had no effect on his state of consciousness and he nodded in and out of sleep.

It didn't seem long, but it must have been at least half an hour at least before he decided enough was enough and rose to walk around for a bit to keep his eyes open.

It was around that time when a girl, probably around fourteen or fifteen, arrived at the infirmary artfully handling a platter laden with food. Zhi was curious to see three plates stacked on the tray. Evidently, 'the girl' wasn't able to eat yet. She wasn't even _awake_. Though, admittedly, that was partly due to Zhi's antics. Whoops. He wasn't particularly sorry, however, since she had been at risk of hurting herself. And him, of course.

Zhi, intending to relieve her of her burden, reached out. But as he did so, she shied away from him slightly. Zhi stood back having had enough of scaring females. Sheesh. Was he really that frightening?

"Hey, no offence meant, I just thought that looked heavy." His chivalrous side that his wife, after seven years of marriage, had beat into him didn't allow him to stand by while a delicate girl did the heavy labour. And carrying a platter of food was definitely what his wife would call 'heavy labour'.

The girl shook her head shyly. "Thank you, but I can manage." He voice was very soft and he had to strain himself to hear.

"Well, uh, okay." Zhi looked around, not seeing any tables that looked like they were made for eating. "I'm not sure where you're supposed to put it—" his remark was cut short as a low table seemed to rise out of the floor. Zhi was taken aback. This place just seemed to be full of surprises. "Did you do that?"

The girl gave a slight, trembling smile and shook her head. "No, sir. I'm not a waterbender."

"Aimi!"

Zhi's head whipped around at the sound of Masuke's deep voice. The man strode forward, a broad grin on his face. He carried two brown fur rugs over one arm.

The first thing Zhi noticed that Masuke actually _smiled_. Not that it was odd or anything, but evidently he didn't leave his mask on all the time. His dark blue hood was down as well to reveal a startlingly handsome man. His long brown hair was pulled back from his face into a ponytail. His dark blue eyes twinkled with humour and warmth. Zhi blinked. Perhaps he was older than he had first appeared.

Aimi blushed and ducked her head behind her bangs. "Masuke." She hesitated before gingerly placing the platter on the low table. "I-I brought you dinner. I hope you like it."

Masuke spread the rugs before seating himself at the table he had raised. "I'm sure it will be delicious. You're a great cook, Aimi."

Aimi blushed at the compliment. "T-thank you, Masuke." She bowed low. "Enjoy your dinner."

Zhi followed Masuke's lead and seated himself across from the medic. He noticed that the mats were wide enough to accommodate at least two people on each side. He threw Masuke and Aimi a sly glance. Hehe.

Instead of backing away as Zhi had expected her to do, she lingered in the doorway, hovering between going and working up the courage to stay. He recognised the symptoms immediately. Blushing, ducking the head, quiet, uncertain tones and now hesitancy.

Zhi raised his brow at Masuke who seemed to be totally oblivious and was filling his plate with gusto. This guy… how impossible.

Didn't he seem to notice that Aimi was in stutters around him?

Zhi had to admit, he himself was a bit of a matchmaker. Usually, that was the women's job, but he found a certain satisfaction with nudging people in what he perceived to be the right direction. Suddenly his fatigue was forgotten as he observed the shy maiden and impossibly ignorant older male.

After a moment, Masuke noticed that the young girl hadn't left. As Masuke's gaze landed on her, she seemed to lose any confidence she had a moment ago.

Blushing, again, Aimi shifted towards the door though clearly she wanted to stay. Zhi lifted a brow at Masuke, wondering what he would do.

Just when Zhi thought Masuke was going to let her walk out the door without saying anything, the oblivious man gestured with his chopsticks.

"Do you want to join us, Aimi?"

Zhi almost slumped where he was sitting. There was ignorance and then there was _ignorance_. Well, he supposed in the end it worked out the way he had rather hoped it would. The poor darling. Maybe if he had time later he would talk to her.

The girl looked a little startled at the question and more than a little intimidated by the notion of eating with a guy she obviously had a crush on. However, beyond her shy and timid facade Zhi could see true eagerness.

"A-are you sure you w-wouldn't mind?" her eyes darted to Zhi and back to the floor which constantly seemed to draw her gaze. "I d-don't want to i-intrude."

Zhi almost smirked. _Yes, you do_.

Luckily, Masuke was rather insistent. "Don't be ridiculous! The lieutenant would enjoy the company of someone other than me. Wouldn't you, Lieutenant Zhi?"

One look into her hopeful eyes and Zhi could do nothing else but acquiesce. He sympathised with the girl. Actually, she reminded him of his own hesitancy with his wife. "Of course. This is my first time in a Water Tribe settlement, after all. I've never seen snow before in my life."

Her eyes lit up slightly. "R-really? Never?"

Zhi suppressed a grin. "That's right."

A little more confident, Aimi moved to sit by Masuke, who scooted over slightly to make room for her, and gracefully settled herself on the furs that had been spread for the meal. They were seated so closely that their blue jackets brushed up against each other intimately. Every time Masuke moved his arm, which was rather often, Aimi would blush slightly and look away.

Zhi resisted a smirk.

The manner in which she had picked her way delicately through the food, taking small portions of this or that told Zhi that she desperately wanted to impress Masuke somewhat, or at least not make a fool of herself.

Zhi refused to allow dinner to pass quietly. Not while Aimi just sat there blushing. The poor girl must have felt so awkward. "May I call you 'Aimi'? Or would you rather something else?"

"Aimi is fine." The girl's quiet voice barely reached Zhi's ears.

Huh. These two were so contrary. Masuke had a loud, commanding presence, while Aimi simply seemed to float gently. If she weren't right in front of him, Zhi might forget she was even there.

"So, Aimi, as much as I understand about Water Tribe culture, and correct me if I'm wrong, don't the women do designated jobs around the Tribe? Is it the same as the Northern Water Tribe?" Masuke had told him it wasn't quite the same, but Zhi just wanted her to talk about something she would feel comfortable with.

"Y-yes. The women in the Tribe are e-expected to take care of domestic d-duties while the men hunt and repair the c-city."

"In that case, what do you so in the tribe? Anything in particular?" It seemed an appropriate question but Aimi ducked her head a little and blushed. Zhi gave her a bit of a quizzical look that went unnoticed among the two.

"I l-like to h-help out in the kitchen, s-sometimes. But m-mostly I look after the c-children in the nursery and p-pre-school classes."

"So you like cooking, then?"

"Y-yes." She gave a slight glance towards Masuke who didn't really appear to be paying much attention to what was being said. She smoothed her skirt and blushed.

Zhi smiled at her timidness. "Ah, so then it's you I have to thank for preparing this lovely meal, is that right?"

Aimi ducked her head. "I-I suppose so. Though you really s-shouldn't flatter, Lieutenant. I'm s-sure you've had m-much better d-during your time serving the F-Fire Lord."

Admiringly, she didn't seem to be fishing for compliments. Her modesty seemed to be genuine and arose from what Zhi suspected was a deep sense of insecurity and lack of self-confidence.

Her attempt at deflecting a compliment seemed to arouse Masuke somewhat. "Really, Aimi, you skills in cooking are exceptional. I'm sure Zhi was completely serious in his comment."

Masuke's attention almost immediately went back to his food and didn't see Aimi's face blush bright red. Zhi smirked. He was just so clueless. Dinner continued in an amiable manner with Zhi providing most of the conversation to either Masuke or Aimi. The two, or rather Aimi, seemed incapable of talking directly to each other despite Masuke's rather sociable welcoming of the young girl earlier. Looking at them now, it was obvious to Zhi that there was something else going on here that he wasn't aware of. Aimi obviously adored Masuke, but the dark man either didn't notice or didn't care.

In relation to what Zhi had already observed of Masuke's personality, he guessed it was the former. The guy just didn't seem to have a malicious bone in his body. And by the way he had casually invited Aimi to join them and then practically ignored her left the distinct feeling that he wasn't awkward around her but simply had nothing to say.

Dinner continued rather smoothly after that, only occasionally being interrupted by smatters of conversation, usually between Zhi and Aimi. The extent of Masuke's further input was either to agree with something Aimi had said or to nod at a question or comment Zhi had made.

The slow conversation reignited Zhi's forgotten exhaustion and he had to fight the urge to just close his eyes and sleep. Every now and again he'd see Masuke's distracted gaze watching him with concern and he knew the medic was aware of his struggles.

At the end of the meal, Aimi bade a timid farewell before scurrying out the doorway with the dishes and much-lighter platter. She had refused the assistance Zhi had courteously offered, much to his frustration. She still seemed slightly wary of the Fire Nation lieutenant. It was fair enough, he supposed. Despite the conversation they had shared rather amicably, people didn't just 'get over' one-hundred years of war and prejudices.

Once Aimi had disappeared, Masuke gave a luxurious stretch before rolling up his mat and rising from where he knelt on the floor. Zhi followed suit, rolling the fur and placing it in Masuke's out-stretched hand.

"Follow me, lieutenant, you need to sleep now." Zhi did as instructed, far too tired to object, following Masuke through the door at the rear of the infirmary. "The room we were just in is what we call the Emergence Room or ER for short. We typically use it for everyday things that only require a short healing session."

Zhi nodded his understanding. "We have similar rooms in the Fire Nation hospitals except it's a bit of a different layout. I suppose that comes from having to use conventional medicine rather than waterbending. We need more room for patient recuperation."

"Oh, make no mistake, if it is simply as an abrasion or harmless cut we allow most of it to heal naturally and prefer to use waterbending to clean out infections or on more unusual cases such as the one you brought with you. Also, bone is difficult to mend with water bending, so we simply speed the process and after that we allow it to heal naturally for a few weeks."

Zhi found himself being led past open doorways with the fur coverings rolled up above the lintel, or where he supposed a lintel would be in conventional construction. Here, it was an ice shelf above the doorway that seemed to serve the purpose of holding up the flap of fur when the room was not in use.

"Luckily you've come at a time when we have plenty of room here. Without the war, the hospital has been rather empty of patients that need overnight care. Here you go." Masuke had stopped at an uncovered doorway with the symbol for 'kyu' (nine) engraved into the ice on the floor in the entrance. "You can stay here for now until we find some other form of accommodation for you. It should be comfortable enough."

Zhi looked around curiously. It was a replica of the rooms he had already passed with furs laid out on the slightly raised area of floor and a bench in along the wall that he assumed was for his personal affects to occupy.

While it was a bit sparse of any individual characteristics, Zhi was simply grateful to have somewhere to rest that was out of the elements. He supposed that aesthetically pleasing design wasn't on the forefront of the builders' minds in the construction of the hospital. "I appreciate the hospitality. Thanks."

Masuke grinned. "Not a problem. While a bit troublesome, you've managed to make my life just that little bit more exciting."

Zhi gave him a dry look. "I'm glad you get some form of entertainment from this."

"No worries. Now," Zhi noticed that he had slipped back into a professional medic's voice, brisk and efficient but warm. "Make sure you get plenty of rest while I tend to our patient."

"Yes, doctor." Zhi replied, only slightly sarcastic, to Masuke's retreating back. The medic didn't reply but Zhi could imagine a smirk gracing his quickly becoming familiar face.

Zhi found it rather amazing just how rapidly he and Masuke has established a rapport. He guessed it must've been a gift on Masuke's side as he had never really been good at making friends and acquaintances. Maybe it was part of a medic's bedside manner. He guessed that having such an open and trusting disposition worked well for Masuke as a medic. Patients would be more inclined to trust the young man from the moment he smiled warmly at them.

Zhi sighed and crawled under the fur covers, not even bothering to undress. It was far too cold for that sort of nonsense anyway. The furs were warm and dry. Even comfortable. He had first assumed they would be scratchy and irritating but it was soft. He felt the stress from the last few hours creep up on him in the form of over-whelming fatigue. The sun had already sunk below the horizon and like most fire benders, Zhi felt the insistence to sleep through the cold darkness. With nothing to keep him awake, Zhi gave into the urge and let his eyes drift shut.

---*0()0*---

Zhi had been asleep for almost an hour now, Masuke knew. The lieutenant had been exhausted and as soon as his body had touched the furs he had been out like a candle in a draft. Masuke, however, found himself restless. It had been a long time since he'd had a patient in such a serious condition. Granted, he had done his utmost to heal and tend to all her wounds and had restored her body to a much cheerier state of health. If she hadn't had access to a healer she would have taken months, possibly an entire year or more, to recover. Worst-case scenario, she would have died from malnutrition.

Fortunately, water bending was able to heal sickness, disease and restore the cells of the body. Despite all this, however, it wasn't to say she'd simply be able to wake up and walk away. No. Even after all he had done, she would have to have regular healing and therapy sessions with the right nutritional diet to regain enough muscle mass to support herself. It would be hard, not just for her but also for him.

Masuke may be the most accomplished water bender in the village and the one with the most advanced medical training, but he hadn't spent quite enough time in the Northern Water Tribe studying medicine, as it was typically viewed as a women's job, to know how to run a rehabilitation program fit for the condition that she was in.

When she awoke and he had done all he could for her, he would have to raise the subject of sending her to a rehab centre in the Northern Water Tribe.

In the meantime, he would have to make-do with healing her himself as best he could. Hopefully he wouldn't completely disgrace himself.

He had seated himself beside the girl in order to monitor her condition throughout the night. Someone had to be on hand on the very likely chance that she woke up. Waking in a place one had no recollection of falling asleep in could be a very disconcerting experience and from what the lieutenant had said of what had happened the first time she had awoken in unfamiliar surroundings it seemed like a wise idea.

He had done this sort of thing frequently while studying in the Northern Water Tribe when the war had still been going. It was the usual occurrence for apprentices to take on these sorts of tasks.

Unfortunately, for Masuke, the apprentices had the day off. He rolled his eyes. The one day he could have genuinely used one of them was the day they had been allowed a brief reprieve from study and hospital life. He supposed he could have called one of them in anyway, but the day off had been promised to them for a long time and he knew most of them had planned specific events with their families.

The apprentices usually helped with mixing herbs and dealing with what Masuke had termed 'petty patients'. It had a nice ring to it and tidily summed up all those who decided that every single little scratch that leaked blood would _certainly_ need to be seen to by a professional healer. Pfft. Other duties included keeping the hospital clean and continually researching diseases and cures. Some of the apprentices would practice the healing arts on themselves or each other by giving themselves small, precise nicks with daggers and then trying to heal them completely as quickly as possible. Notably, most of these students had planned on going on to become a field medic for the army before the war had officially ended over six months ago.

Masuke rather liked the method as it left many of the apprentices with an appreciation of injuries and just how much some of them hurt. He remembered the year before when one of the apprentices had deliberately broken his own finger to allow his friend the chance to heal bone before leaving for the medic exams in the Northern Water Tribe. The hospital had seen a quiet period and the lack of patients had left the students frustrated that they wouldn't get extra practice before the exams. Hence the unusual solution of self-inflicted injuries. The experience led to that boy becoming very sympathetic towards any patient with a broken or fractured limb.

Speaking of apprentices, the medic exams would soon be starting up in the Northern Water Tribe again. They were probably about three weeks away. Masuke and Makati had already nominated those they believed were ready to take them. The students were studying and working hard in order to be as ready as possible for the trial. The boy who had broken his finger the previous year was one of the nominee's and Masuke believed he would do just fine.

He returned his wavering attention back to the patient he was supposed to be monitoring. Some medic he was. After his and Makati's first exam of her injuries, they had dressed her in Water Tribe hospital gowns. 'Gowns' was a plural because while he could warm the water around the bed to an acceptable body temperature, it wouldn't be enough to warn away the frigid temperatures of the night. A conventional gown like those used in the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, which allowed quicker access to the patient, just wasn't practical. Instead, the robes had strategic splits in the material over vital bodily organs that allowed the medics to access the patient without having to undress them. The slits were held closed tightly by large buttons and pegs. Everything they had designed in the hospital had purely practical purposes and allowed for better doctor-patient access. These measures were the reasons why Water Tribe healing centres were renowned for their medical services.

Undoing the buckle at her wrist, Masuke checked her pulse and found it steadier than it had been but slightly quicker than normal. A quick count of her breaths per-minute showed that her vitals had changed from slow and lethargic to slightly faster and not so deep. Her eyes moved rapidly under her lids and her muscles had relaxed noticeable.

Hmmm… REM sleep. The first stage in the sleep cycle. This was good. She was no longer unconscious due to the lieutenant's ill thought through blow to her head but rather sleeping instead. Being in REM also meant that there was a higher chance of her waking within the next twenty to thirty minutes.

Masuke relaxed a little. If she were truly sleeping then she was mostly out of danger. If she awoke within the respective time frame without any sign of obvious brain damage, he could confidently say she'd pull through completely without any other adverse affects from her condition.

With this in mind, Masuke sat back against the wall patiently, prepared to wait out the remaining time.

---*0()0*---

_Yellow flames licked the mahogany hallways. Tall, round pillars stood at strict attention, lining the shadowed corridor. She recognised the intricate designs from the palace in Sozin. _

_Azula took a commanding step and her footfall echoed hollowly. _

_She smirked. This was her domain. Here, she was a princess and demanded respect. _

_She strode confidently towards the grand double doors. Golden dragons woven into the exquisite carpentry of the woodwork rose up in a fierce salute of their ruler; their mouths open as if to breathe a halo of fire around her head._

_Her heart thumped with the anticipation of kneeling before her father and knowing that he was pleased with her. That she was the one he favoured._

_Red clad servants stepped out of the darkness to grip the dragons' claws and sweep the doors open for her passage. Neither dared to look her in the eye. She revelled in the power their fear gave her. _

_Her eyes turned cold, arrogant. Her back straightened and her head rose. Beyond the doors was the expansive pillared throne room that she remembered. The light from the throne's fire pit was the only source of illumination and threw everything into shadows. _

_She loved this room. When she was here, she was respected as both the Fire Lord's daughter and as a prodigy in her own right. _

_She took a step forward, confident, and the doors clanged shut behind her. The sound reverberated throughout the space, unable to escape. _

_She took steps to her usual position in front of the throne._

_She noticed then that something was wrong with this picture. A figure already occupied her position. He knelt reverently before the Fire Lord. His head turned at her entrance and as their golden eyes met she recognised him. Zuko._

"_What are you doing here?" She asked him sharply._

_Zuko grinned cruelly. "Don't like it, do you, Azula?"_

"_Like what? You are nothing to me but weak and cowardly without honour."_

_Zuko's laugh reverberated throughout the chamber and Azula couldn't help but take a hesitant step backwards. That wasn't the usual response she got from her brother. _

"_You are a disgrace. No longer a prodigy. No title. No crown. Nothing. "_

"_No! I am princess Azula of the Fire Nation—"_

_Zuko cut in over her. "And that's all you'll ever be. A lowly princess. The title of Fire Lord belongs to me."_

_She sneered at him. Unwilling to show that his taunting had hurt. "Father loves me but what have you got Zuzu? Despite your talk you have nothing to show for your words."_

_Zuko stood regally and for once Azula had to admit that he looked every bit the powerful leader. What had happened? Everything had been going so well. She was going to become Fire Lord. Not her brother…_

"_You are no longer needed, sister. How does it feel to be replaced? Disposable?"_

_At his words, she clenched her fists so tight her knuckles whitened and her blood-red nails bit into her skin. "That's not true! I am not disposable! I am not a failure like you!"_

"_Azula." The deep voice of the Fire Lord interrupted and Azula dropped to her knees in respect. _She_, not Zuko, was the favoured child._

"_Yes, father?"_

"_I trusted you to retrieve your brother and uncle." He paused, his eyes boring into hers and she saw… dismissal. "You could not kill the Avatar and allowed prisoners to escape. I gave you the title of Fire Lord and you have made me regret it." Another pause. "You are a failure to me."_

_Her chest tightened. "No! I have never failed you. Don't treat me like Zuko!" Azula fought the tears that were threatening behind her eyelids. This couldn't be happening to her. Not to _her._ She was a prodigy, her father's pride and she was strong._

_Then out of the shadows came a flutter of pink and a sliver of sombre black._

"_Mai! Ty Lee!" She knew she could always trust her childhood friends. They had never failed her or let her down in any way. She could count on them to get things right._

_But as her eyes took in their proximity to Zuko, her heart sank. "Don't do this to me. We're friends, right?"_

_When they didn't respond, Azula tried to harden her features just as she had done to Long Feng in Ba Sing Se. Emotionless. That was the key. "I—I order you! They are weak. I'll make you regret siding with them." Fear had always worked. What had changed?_

Everything.

_Rage filled her and all she wanted was to hurt them the way they had all hurt her. Her fingers came together in their customary position for lightning. The pain that gripped her heart seemed to lessen slightly when she thought of the satisfaction she'd feel for hurting them as much as they had hurt her. It was only fair. _

_As her fingertips sparked blue there was a familiar flash of pink and her arms dropped heavily to her sides. Two more jabs and her legs refused to support her weight. Azula met the ground with a thud and looked up into the grey eyes of Ty Lee and the emotionless black ones of Mai. She wondered briefly how the latter had pulled off being so cold and yet retaining something that Azula thought impossible._

_The ultimate betrayal. Again. Only the anger in her heart burned away the tears in her eyes. But nothing could touch or heal the constricted feeling in her chest. It hurt so bad. _

_And she could do nothing._

---*0()0*---

_It is cold._

The air was chilly and dry. That was the first thing Azula noticed upon waking. Even in winter the Fire Nation retained a fair amount of stickiness that made her clothes cling to her body in what Ty Lee assured her was a very alluring way. Azula had never found it anything but annoying and impractical. She had always ignored the discomfort but secretly loathed it. But now that it wasn't present she found herself annoyingly disoriented. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt so utterly perplexed at her surroundings. She couldn't feel silken sheets beneath her and there were no blankets covering her; that much she could tell without opening her eyes.

In fact, she could feel… was that _water_ beneath her palm? Albeit, it was comfortably _warm_ water, but… _water?_ The last thing she remembered was stealing away on a ship and being mistakenly locked in a storage cellar. She had attempted to stay conscious of her surroundings but had blacked out from hunger and malnutrition then… nothing.

Azula scoured her memory furiously. There must have been something there. The search ended frustratingly fruitless.

_Okay, calm down. Remember, panic is a weakness that clouds you mind and gives the enemy an advantage. Stay calm, stay focused._

She took a few moments to calm her breathing, focusing on the simple task of regulating when she inhaled and when she exhaled.

Keeping her eyes closed, she gave her body an experimental wiggle. Finding that she could move her arms and legs helped to steady her welling panic. It was okay, no one had restrained her. This simple observation opened up a variety of interesting scenarios.

She experimentally ran her fingers along the surface beneath her. Minus the water, the surface was flat and smooth like glass. Okay, so, in summary: the air was cold and crisp. Not Fire Nation. She knew she had been travelling up the west coast of the Earth Kingdom. She was covered in warm water while wearing… Wait, what _was_ she wearing?

These weren't the clothes she had stolen. They were soft, but not silken, and lined with fur. One more thing. She wasn't being restrained. She found it unlikely that she was on the Fire Nation vessel she had stolen away on. For one, all Fire Nation vessels were kept heated by the boiler room. Private quarters, baths, the command deck and the medical rooms were focused on mostly as the majority of people moved within the space. Since she wasn't being restrained, it was also apparent that she hadn't been recognised yet and was obviously far from the Fire Nation. That was odd.

Usual procedure upon finding a stow-away was to confine them to the infirmary pending an examination, file a report and upon them passing the medical exam, to be confined to the brig until the next Fire Nation port where they would be handed over to the appropriate authorities.

Okay, so the Fire Nation was ruled out. Fire Nation port or authorities were also ruled out. Good so far. But then, she didn't really have many friends or safe havens she could run to, either.

The only possibilities left were the Earth Kingdom or… the Northern Water Tribe. Hn. Earth Kingdom, okay. Northern Water Tribe, not so okay. The Earth Kingdom had so many settlements and ports that it would be easy for her to slip by unnoticed and vanish into the vastness of the continent. But the Northern Water Tribe… It consisted of one tight-knit city with water bender's every other step. The only way out was by boat and not to mention she had observed that the Northern Water Tribe as especially wary of outsiders.

There _was_ one factor that she seemed to have going for her. A lack of manacles suggested that her 'captors' were unaware of her identity. No one would be foolish enough to leave her unrestrained. And if no one knew her identity, it would be in her best interest to leave it that way.

She needed a pseudonym. One she was familiar enough with that she would respond to it readily but not so close to her own name that people would get suspicious.

Hmm…

"I know you're awake."

To her credit, Azula managed to retain some semblance of sleep despite being startled. She fought to repress the small growl of irritation that threatened to escape her throat. She wasn't quite ready yet. How annoying.

"Your breathing changed exactly five and a half minutes ago. Your muscles tensed and your eyes stopped flickering."

Knowing she was caught and a little miffed at the deductive skills of the voice, Azula reluctantly opened her eyes. After a moment of searching, her glare came to rest on a smiling young man. He was seated next to her, one knee drawn up almost to his chest with an arm draped casually over it. His back slouched languidly against the wall. His posture reminded her of lazy-ass subordinates who didn't last more than a few hours in the palace before being fired for incompetence.

She didn't like him.

At her seemingly un-alarmed and indifferent attitude, the man gave her a quizzical glance. "Hm. You're not as disoriented as I thought you would be considering the circumstances and the reaction the lieutenant said you had last time you woke."

She gave him an icy glare. "I have not awoken before. Do not patronise me." She had calculated just the right amount of viciousness her voice would have to carry to unnerve him but instead all she saw was studied concern.

Without replying, the man rose to his knees beside her and picked up a clipboard that must have been resting beside her 'bed' where she couldn't see it. He pulled a brush out from under the clip and dipped it below the platform. When it came back up it was tipped in black, which she assumed was ink.

When his eyes met hers, they were suddenly professional but retained an element of warmth.

"Okay. I just have a few questions for you just to see how you're adjusting to your surroundings."

His, in Azula's opinion, overly bright smile and the look in his eyes that she guessed was supposed to have a calming effect served only to irritate her further. She was _not_ a child and didn't deal well with being talked down to.

"I'm adjusting fine!" Her voice cracked like a whip through the cold room.

The medic gave her an unruffled smile. "I'm sure you are. But I'm sure you would understand that this is just a formality. Hospital protocol. Just try and bear with me."

"Don't treat me like… a child." The small pause was almost imperceptible but her breath caught in her throat regardless.

"It was not my intention. I have to ask these questions of all our patients. I will be quick. No more than five minutes." His blue gaze was steady and… honest.

She clenched her jaw and tried to still her irritation and the urge she had to show this peasant exactly what happened when you messed with the Fire Nation princess. But in the end, her analytical mind took over as it usually did to tell her that perhaps that wasn't the best way to stay incognito. "Fine."

"Good." His brush hovered over the parchment. "Can you tell me your name for the records?"

"Mae." _Mae? What the heck?_ Where had that come from? She did _not_ want to be reminded of the traitor every time someone called to her. It was a bit too late to change it now without arousing suspicion. She could change to something else as soon as she left this infernal place.

The man seemed to notice the strange expression that must have briefly flitted across her face before she regained control. Instead of pursuing the avenue as Azula would have done, he brushed it aside and essentially ignored what would have been an opportune moment to exploit weakness.

"Well, it certainly is a pleasure to meet you, Mae."

Azula tilted her head away from him. "What's good about it?"

He looked slightly taken back by her jaded retort. "Well. It's always nice to meet someone new, wouldn't you agree?"

"No. Not if they aren't of any use to me and I am of no use to them. Then the meeting is rather pointless and, frankly, a waste of time."

His lips twitched in amusement. "Well, _I_ certainly find pleasure in it. How did you become so cynical so young." It was less of a question, but Azula was slightly insulted.

"I _am_ fifteen, you know."

The man smiled. "Really?" he wrote something quickly. "Could've fooled me."

"I _did_ fool you." What was _wrong_ with this guy? He said the most useless and ridiculous things that Azula just couldn't understand the relevance of.

"So you did. Well, Mae, I am the head medic here. You can just call me Masuke." He looked at her as if his title should have meant something. But truly, Azula's mind was on a far more interesting point.

Hmph. Well, she supposed she _could _have thought of a stupider name. _Masuke_. Right. Poor guy.

"I don't care what your name is. Are you almost finished?"

'Masuke' sighed. "Just a few more, okay? I seriously won't take long." He ran a hand through his hair in what Azula recognised as mild frustration. She smirked. She had gotten to him.

"Alright, never mind then. What's your last recollection…er, memory?"

"Just because I'm fifteen doesn't mean I'm stupid! I know very well what recollection means!" She snapped at him. "And what does my memory got to do with anything? It's none of your business."

His bedside patience seemed to be waning slightly but he forced down his rising irritation and forced out the words as pleasantly as he could. "Your condition of malnutrition and the effects of being trapped in a confined space with no vitamin D for weeks could have adverse affects on your psyche. These questions will help me assess the damage done—"

"I haven't received any psychological damage!" The nerve they had to suggest that she would somehow be _retarded_ simply from a couple of days of confinement!

Admittedly, she _had_ miscalculated but she would be able to tell if she had sustained any type of damage. Nothing escaped her notice.

"As I was about to say, the likelihood of damage occurring is slim but we have to be certain." There seemed to be some sort of warning in his eyes that Azula paid no attention to. No one but her father had ever intimidated her before and she wasn't going to let this petty medic get to her. Although, the exasperation she read on his face was oddly satisfying. It granted her a small amount of power that she relished.

Azula calculated for a moment. He obviously knew about her being a stow-away and the conditions surrounding it. As long as he didn't know her real reasons for what she did, her identity should be safe and he wouldn't become a liability.

The only problem now was swallowing her pride enough to answer his questions no matter how useless they seemed. She had… miscalculated, yes, but admitting that to herself and admitting that to a stranger were two very different things.

"I… remember boarding the ship and being locked in the cellar," her cheeks reddened slightly at the embarrassing situation she had found herself in. It was undignified for a princess of her stature. "As there was no light everything from there on out is slightly hazy. I _do_ know I was down there for an extensive amount of time. Perhaps a few days… maybe a week or more." She managed to grit the words out in what she thought was a rather amiable manner. "Is that enough?"

He ignored her last question. Something that rubbed Azula the wrong way. "Is that all? You don't remember anything after that?"

Why did he have to patronise her? "No. I blacked out some point and I don't remember anything after that. What are you getting at? I don't have all day for word games." She remembered a time when she had always enjoyed patronising people by dancing around a point and playing with their minds. Now that she was on the receiving end of one, no matter how insignificant, she found that she didn't care for it at all.

The medic sighed. "According to the Fire Nation lieutenant who brought you here you awoke briefly and were in a reasonably coherent state of mind. Apparently you panicked and he was forced to subdue you."

Azula looked at him. "I don't panic." She told him, deadpan. "And I do not get 'subdued'."

"I am only relaying what he told me. I was hoping you could verify his story. I have to record the event since injury occurred." He looked down at his notes. "I thought you may have incurred brain damage from that incident."

Azula scowled. A blow to the head was _not _going to give her brain damage. To her credit, she refrained from commenting on his lack of respect and instead allowed him to continue so that she might leave the hospital as soon as possible.

"Since you can't remember the incident, I would guess that the consolidation process for recollection was interrupted by the head trauma and has resulted in a very mild retrograde amnesia. Because it all took place within a time frame of twenty minutes, it is likely that you will never recover those memories."

"Never is a long time."

"I know. That is why I said it is _unlikely_, _highly_ unlikely, actually."

Azula struggled to sit up, determined not to take this interrogation any further while lying in such a vulnerable position. However, when she went to move her arms, she found that she couldn't find the strength to lift them past her waist and they fell to her sides uselessly.

Masuke, seeing her struggles, leant over and tried to help her prop herself up.

At his hands on her arms, Azula stiffened. "I don't need your help, medic!" She snapped at him. The idea of her needing someone to do something as menial as sitting up was humiliating.

Masuke ignored her briefly to finish propping her in a sitting position with the aid of some sneaky waterbending.

When he was finished, he crouched beside her. "Look, you're going to be a bit dependant on me for a while, okay? Someone who went through what you did won't be able to just get up and walk away."

She wasn't really listening as she tried to desperately manipulate her limbs with the fluidity that she _knew_ she had. For some reason, her arms and legs just wouldn't respond as she wanted them to. While her arms could be raised a shaky five centimetres, her legs remained glued to the bed. "Why aren't my muscles moving?" She loathed the anxiety she could hear in her voice but at that time, she was just so _scared_. She had never been so scared in her life. She was _always_ in control of her body and had the ability to pull off any fire bending move that was demonstrated to her. But now… she had lost control of even her own limbs. "W-what's wrong with me?"

She fixed her eyes on the medic's calm face, almost grateful that someone was here who could explain this to her.

Masuke could see the distress in her eyes and his heart was moved. No matter how tough she acted, she really was only fifteen. He put a hand out to smooth her hair, hoping it would convey some sort of comfort. "Calm down. This isn't so unusual. I had hoped that you wouldn't incur it, but it isn't permanent."

His deep voice was soothing and the way his hand gently stroked her hair reminded Azula of her mother very briefly. When she had been young, she had seen her mother comfort Zuko in the same way and deep down had always been jealous of the affection he had received. She knew it was because he was to become Fire Lord. Why else would their mother favour him?

"Not permanent? How long will it last?"

Masuke sat back as rationality returned to her and her eyes became distant once again. "Well, the extreme paralysis, which you're experiencing now, should ware off in a day or so. You'll be able to sit up and such on your own by tomorrow evening probably." It actually wore off in a little less time than that, but he wanted to give himself some sort of buffer in case the scrolls he had read were wrong. "But it will take a couple of weeks with regular healing sessions for you to completely recover your strength."

"A couple of _weeks_?" She asked sharply. Her tone was somewhat due to incredulity, partly to lingering anxiety and partly to embarrassment at her loss of control earlier. "Can't you make it less than that with your…water bending?"

"That _is_ with water bending. Normally you'd recover after a year or more."

She sat back. "Oh." Her limbs were trembling and she hated the weakness. Even though she tried desperately to hide it, Masuke noticed. Damn his perceptiveness.

He flicked the pages of his clipboard, scanning his notes quickly, before tucking away his brush and placing the lid back atop the jar of ink. Standing, he pushed the top of the clipboard into the wall above Azula's head with what she saw to be the aid of water bending.

Lazy.

"If you want to get up soon, your body needs to rest a little."

Ignoring his station as head-medic, Azula retorted hotly, "My body's been resting for _ages_, anymore and I'll get worse, not better."

Masuke pocketed the inkbottle and straightened his jacket. "Any other time you'd be right, but Makati and I put you through a healing session while you were unconscious and it has taken a toll on your body. Right now the best thing to do is to regain your energy by sleeping until you can manage to eat again. I'll wake you for breakfast tomorrow morning." He gave her a small, and what Azula supposed was friendly, smile. "Goodnight, Mae. We'll talk again tomorrow."

Azula huffed and ignored him. She saw no reason to wish him a goodnight.

She heard Masuke sigh and the ice she was leaning on slid seamlessly downwards, taking her with it. From her position on her back, she glared up at the medic. "I'll have you know that sleeping on glass-like ice is _highly_ uncomfortable."

"I'll get you some rugs. Just a minute." He disappeared down a hallway and returned a few moments later with… was that _furs_? As in, dead animal skins, draped over one arm.

"I am _not_ sleeping on dead things, thank you." She fixed him with another scathing glare.

"Well, look at it this way. It's either the furs or the 'glass'. Your choice."

Her murderous intent filled the room but her traitorous body betrayed her. Looking away, she clenched her jaw against unexpected tears of humiliation. "Fine."

Masuke seemed to sense that she was at breaking point and didn't comment. Instead, he moved to pick up Azula and place her temporarily against the wall while he fixed her sleeping pallet. He froze the warm water and placed the furs on top. She would be fine without his heating as long as none of her body touched the ice. He made sure that the bedding was arranged so that it wasn't possible for her limbs to trail on the icy surfaces. Done with that, he turned and lifted her up onto the pile. Her small body sank a few inches and he tucked the top furs over her to just under her chin.

"You'll be warm enough tonight." He spoke quietly in respect for her feelings at that moment. He hadn't realised how much her pride must have been damaged until he had seen her eyes well up with frustration. Her head was still turned away from his and he rose quietly with a sigh.

Azula refused to speak until she had complete control over her words. But by the time she had worked up the courage to say something, anything, he had already left.

And she was, once again, alone.

And cold.

---*0()0*---

**Whew! Finally, yeah. Look, I apologise. I had intended to get this out before Christmas and I thought that I would have time to write after my exams. But the day after my last exam, I started working full-time as a teacher aid. I didn't finish until mid-December. My sister (Chipfest) and I, who is also writing a FF (a Zutara, **_**Corollary**_**, and an Avatar OC, **_**Dissension**_**, fic), decided we should compete to finish our chapters and we weren't allowed to post until the other was ready, too. It was supposed to inspire competitiveness and therefore produce faster updates… well, it didn't really work as well as I thought it would… But she finished her chapter today so I HAD to finish mine (especially since until then I had been ahead of her). So now it's… 1:40 Victorian time and my back and eyes are sore from staring hunched over the computer screen. But I finally did it! Yay! Happy New Year everyone!! I hope u have an AwEsOme 2009 and reviews would really be appreciated. **

**I'll try to update as much as possible while I'm on holidays before I have to go back to work. Damn, I HATE working. I've decided that being a teacher is the LAST thing I want to do. Thanks but no thanks. **

**Anyways, plz REVIEW!! Azula's up and I want to hear your thoughts on what's happened so far. I dunno if Azula is OOC. It's hard to know what she'd say or do in that sort of situation. There'll be a little bit of an arc here which will stabilise the characters and setting but I have some stuff planned to keep it from being the material u pick up when u can't sleep. I'm more into drama than a lot of just action (tho there WILL be some in later chapters). I like to focus on character development and their relationship with each other. And remember, Azula's gonna learn to fall in love. **

**Arigato for your patience guys (I assume patience because I haven't got any abusive emails) and I'll try to be A LOT quicker on the next updates. I am aware that 7 months is fairly ridiculous.**

**Ja ne!**

**Gabzalabza**


	5. And Not So Friends

**I've taken out a creative licence with Avatar. I don't really like to do it; I prefer to stick to the facts that the cartoon/anime offers (canon). However, since Avatar seems to be a bit rushed and the creators have sort of brushed over a couple of important questions that require answering in order to write a detailed story I have deducted my own theories from what I have observed. **

**These questions include: Does the Nth Pole have 6mths of darkness and 6 of light, or not? How does healing w/ water bending work? Does it include bones, disease, muscle regeneration or poisons? Since they can freeze water, can water benders adjust the temperature to make it hot or boil? Can blood-bending be used in healing? Wouldn't blood-bending damage muscle, arteries and veins? Would fire benders be affected by the cold or a cloudy day like they are during an eclipse? Do earth and air benders have something, like water benders have the moon and fire bender's the sun, to make them stronger? How do gods, spirits and superstition fit into the Avatar universe? And so on and so forth. My sister and I have many questions that we just have to make our own conclusions for. Meh.**

**So, excuse the creative licence and if you have any views on these questions and any way to back it up we'd be most grateful to hear from you.**

**EH, IMPORTANT NOTICE. (Apology. Shimmata…)**

***Rolls eyes***

**Yeah, yeah. My bad. I have a myriad of excuses, but they all seem like just that. Excuses. The crux of the matter is pure, unadulterated laziness. On my part. **

**Arigato for the reviews, those who did. They were much appreciated. I was actually just reading over some of the reviews when it struck me that I REALLY needed to update. It's been an inexcusable long seven, almost eight, months now. I apologise. Profusely. **

**Now. Here we go.**

Chapter 5—And Not So Friends…

"_Friends are God's way of saying, 'Sorry for relatives'."  
--Anonymous_

---*0()0*---

It was still dark when Azula's golden irises flickered open. The shadowed blue of the ceiling was the first sight to greet her. Her muscles remained still as her mind oriented itself in her unfamiliar settings. Confusion was not something Azula was accustomed to and she refused to allow it to cloud her perceptions. Her memories cleared of waking rather unpleasantly to a medic hovering over her and the ridiculous and meaningless conversation that had followed. He said his name was Masuke and he was the head medic. She knew without having to be told that she was in the Northern Water Tribe. She had noticed all the ice, his subtle water bending and the over-use of dead animal skins. Azula was in no way dense and her quick mind had swiftly evaluated the situation and conditions. _Damn_.

The Northern Water Tribe was _exactly_ whom she had hoped to avoid. However, it was evident by their treatment of her that they hadn't realised precisely whom they were harbouring. She was not going to enjoy her short stay here.

Speaking of staying, her mind flickered back over the conversation she had shared with strict detail until it reached the part where the medic had informed her about her muscle paralysis. He had said that it would last until the following evening. Azula, never one for assumptions, experimentally shifted her body. She was pleased when everything seemed to move at her command. However, when she proceeded to lift her hand she could only draw it as far as her stomach and it shook uncontrollably. She attempted to clench her fist in frustration but her muscles were too _weak_ to curl closed. Her eyes welled up in with-held frustration. She felt so vulnerable at the moment, unable to literally even raise a hand in defence. Azula blinked back the moisture in her eyes. She needed to do things herself. She couldn't rely on others. What was she going to do now? They would undoubtedly try and take advantage of her in some way in the condition she was in right now. She couldn't risk it. No matter how harmless they seemed, betrayal could come from anywhere.

---*0()0*---

Despite the lack of windows in the private hospital room, Zhi knew it was dawn. The fact alone that he was awake proved it. He never slept after the sun had graced the ground with its first rays of light. Most fire benders were the same though it was commonly found that the more powerful the fire bender's rose with the sun far more consistently than mediocre fire bender's. Zhi supposed this was because powerful fire bender's had Agni's blood, the sun god, flowing strongly through their veins.

In any case, Zhi found himself wide awake at the first hint of daylight. He played with the idea of rising and waiting for Masuke to join him for breakfast. However, he had heard where fire benders were early risers; water benders were the complete opposite.

Rethinking his idea, Zhi decided to doze for a while longer amongst the warm furs before exposing himself to the bitter chill that graced his nose and cheeks. It was the only part of his body that he couldn't cover as he sort of needed them to breath. His body wasn't used to the cold climate after the scorching heat in the Fire Nation and the tepid temperatures of the Earth Kingdom.

After what he supposed was about an hour but was probably shorter, Zhi began to get restless. Normally, he'd get up and train at this point, go on shift, have breakfast while reviewing reports to send to the Fire Lord. His day started early and ended early. He didn't think that the water benders of the village would appreciate a lone fire bender wandering around or training where he could be perceived as a threat to civilians.

Not to mention he didn't have a clue where to look for a training arena. Or if they even had one. Who knew?

Zhi tucked his arm behind his head as the chill lessened just noticeably and his room lightened. Even at night, the houses of ice didn't seem to get very dark and he supposed it was a convenient happenstance for the inhabitants of the village as artificial light such as candles and lamps would be less necessary than in the Fire Nation.

Tch. This was ridiculous. What time did they start in the Water Tribe, anyways? Surely they had a lot to get through in a day with the limited number of daylight hours that came from being so far north. The sun had surely well crested the horizon by now but he couldn't make out the slightest disturbance.

Feeling well-rested and in return a bit restless, Zhi rolled over slightly and sat up. He grimaced at the feel of yesterdays clothes on his skin. Luckily it was cold enough that he hadn't started to smell too bad. E absently wondered what they did for bathing in the Water Tribes. The Fire Nation would use the hot springs that were prolific throughout his country but surely the Water Tribe wouldn't be able to contain hot water in this dry and _absolutely freezing_ landscape.

A small blessing came from sleeping in his clothes (even though he had to admit it was fairly disgusting) was that they were already warm. This fortunate occurrence dawned on Zhi when he reached down to pull on his boots and found them to be slightly frosted from the sub-zero temperatures they had experienced the night before.

He scowled. How anyone could live in this sorry place was completely beyond him. Damn it.

He pulled the slightly brittle leather on over his socks and fur-lined pants in determination. Most of the determination was directed towards weathering the cold while the rest was left for relieving his restiveness.

Boots on, coat tucked appropriately over his outfit, Zhi stood and brushed past the thick fur mat hovering over his doorway. The hallway was a pale sort of blue-white colour. It looked similar to the way he remembered it the night before. It was definitely past sunrise. He could see the light through the ice sheets on the roof. Now that he could observe them properly, the roof sheets seemed to be thinner than the walls. Probably to allow maximum light penetration during the day.

The doorways to the other rooms were still rolled and placed on the lintels; a practice that Zhi still found somewhat odd and primitive. Cautiously looking around, and feeling somewhat like a school boy sneaking out of class, Zhi took a few cautious steps in the direction he knew to be towards the 'front' of the medical centre.

A strange sight met Zhi when he entered the ER room. Well, it didn't seem so at first. Everything was as he had left it the night before. Pallets were integrated into the sides of the room, numbering around ten in total. Sunlight peaked under the bottom of the fur-covered door. Zhi smiled at the welcome presence, however so small, of the element that gave his bending an edge and Zhi a sense of warmth and peace. His roving eyes settled on the small, innocent girl he had helped save just yesterday. He remembered her tortured expressions and hopelessness that had made his fatherly instincts kick-in and want to hug and kiss her tears away. Ah, that angelic face…

Only…

It was scowling.

Quite viciously.

At him.

Huh?

---*0()0*---

_(An hour or so previously…)_

In her impatience combined with utter frustration at being unable to do anything about it, the sharp clicking of Azula's not-so-well manicured finger nails echoed through the large room. The Water Tribe medics may have been world renowned for their advanced medical techniques, but their knowledge of what to do with a patient after they had recovered seemed to be sorely lacking.

Someone should have come to ask if she required anything by now. It was well past dawn and yet nothing had stirred in the hospital.

Click.

Click.

Click.

Thirty seconds.

Click.

Click.

Click.

One minute.

Azula scowled at the ceiling; the only thing she could really look at as she hadn't managed to pull herself upright yet. She could barely manage to lift her head for more than a few moments. Her muscles seemed to have almost no strength in them. All she could do was wait.

Waiting sucked.

Normally she was a patient sort of person. Normally she could wait for whatever amount of time was necessary before her plans could take effect. Normally a few hours of waiting wouldn't have bothered her in the slightest.

This certainly wasn't a normal day.

Because she wasn't in control and she hated it. Hated this feeling of disconnection. Hated the thoughts that kept flying through her head. The dream hadn't helped matters at all. It had taunted her with what she could have had. _Should _have had. Something she had prepared her whole life to take. She had worked almost tirelessly to make her plans come to fruition. And just when she thought she had succeeded Zuko had shown up. With _nakama. _While she had stood before them. Alone.

Her fingers stilled on the ice.

_Nakama_. Companions. Comrades. People to rely on. She'd had those. She had truly, naively, thought of Ty Lee and Mai as _nakama_. But they turned out to be anything but. Traitors.

Nakama were overrated, it seemed. _If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself._ The old adage was overused, but Azula knew it applied to her perfectly. She always did things with the utmost excellence. She had to rely on herself to get what it was she wanted. No one else could handle her dreams. Her ambition.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of soft footfall from her left. She could tell the person wasn't yet in the room from the echo their boots made on the distant ice. Besides that, no one had ever entered a room without her knowing about it.

They were male, slightly heavier than Masuke. A stranger.

Her forehead creased. Not a water bender. Their footing was slightly unsure and too heavy on the ice. It was unmistakably a bender of some sort. Her eyes narrowed. Never one to eliminate possibilities when it came to a potential opponent, Azula didn't limit her options to the Water Tribe. The footing was familiar.

Tch. It clicked. A fire bender. Damn. What was a fire bender doing _here_, of all places? She supposed she would find out as the person entered the room.

Azula continued scowling at the ceiling. What a problematic turn. What if the fire bender recognised her? No matter. She wouldn't make assumptions as of yet.

---*0()0*---

_(Present time w/ Azula scowling, quite viciously, at Zhi)_

The man blinked and Azula's heart rate sped up slightly. She couldn't even _do_ anything if he did recognise her. Her body still wouldn't respond adequately to any of the commands she gave it. It was sluggish and weak; unable to come to her defence. When she tried to concentrate on fire bending she felt absolutely nothing. Her fingertips wouldn't even heat.

Then.

A smile broke out on his face.

Now. Pause a moment. Azula had nothing against smiles. Every now and then one crept onto her face. Such as the time she had placed the apple on Mai's head when they were little which led to the incident of her friend and Zuko falling into a pond. Or the time she had observed Zuko getting punished by their father during the Agni Kai. Then there was when she had received orders to hunt down her pathetic brother and uncle; when she had been re-united with Mai and Tai Lee and finally when she had killed the Avatar in Ba Sing Se. All moments worthy of a smirk at least. But somehow, this was different. And she couldn't remember it ever being directed at her.

It contained an odd emotion. One she couldn't really remember being directed at her. It was relief. If she had imagined a reaction to her being the Fire Nation princess it wouldn't have been such a genuine expression of anything… well, _positive_.

Wait a second… She suddenly remembered her indignation. She'd been awake for over an hour and only _now_ someone was coming to check on her? A scowl settled on her delicate features. She felt a bit silly, actually. While she'd managed to wiggle her arms out from under the covers (and now that they were thoroughly chilled was unable to put them back _inside_ the covers…), she was still laying rather flat on her back in a rather vulnerable and completely un-intimidating position. Not something Fire Nation royalty should be seen doing.

Her feeling of humiliation coupled with her vulnerable position, relieved Azula of any intentions of engaging in social niceties with this man.

Before he could open his mouth, she snapped at him. "Unless you're a medic, which I doubt, I don't really care for what you have to say."

A brief frown flickered across his features. "Now, sweetheart, that's not a very becoming attitude at all. Hardly an appropriate way to greet someone."

She frowned at his tone. It sounded just like… her mother. Was she being scolded? Unacceptable. "Don't chastise me! I can do whatever I want. Who's going to stop me?"

Zhi was seriously rethinking his angelic comment…

His brow rose. "If you act like a child you will be scolded like a child. You are not old enough to talk like that and get away with it." His tone was firm and uncompromising.

Azula resisted the urge to blink in perplexity. Did he just reprimand her and did she feel… slightly, perhaps, a little bit ashamed? Surely not. No one had ever had that effect on her. She turned her head slightly away and refused to admit she was sulking.

"Now," the fire bender sat on the ice by her bed, "let's start off a little more civilly, shall we?" She looked at him from the corner of her eye. "Good morning, I'm Zhi, the Fire Nation lieutenant that brought you here after I found you on my ship. What's you name?"

Feeling like she was back in pre-school, she snorted. "This is stupid. It's _not _a good morning. It's _freezing_ and I already told you: I don't _care _who you are." It was interesting to note his rank and Nation, though. She remembered Masuke had said something about a Fire Nation lieutenant last night and she felt a little put out that she hadn't connected the dots sooner.

"Sweetheart…" The warning tone in his voice put her on edge and she once again felt a little… guilty for her words. Perhaps he was part of the interrogation squad or something… The look in his eyes, though, broke through her defences.

"Oh, fine. Good morning," she had to admit, it may have come out a bit too mockingly… "I'm Mai."

The drawn out silence that followed prompted her to look at his face and she could tell her was expecting more. "What?" she snapped.

The fire bender leaned back slightly, though not out of fear.

"We're going to have to work at this, I see." He was silent for a while and Azula thought that perhaps he had given up. "Well, alright. Let's play a game."

Azula snorted. "I don't play games."

Zhi grinned and slapped his knees. "Nah, it'll be fun and a good way to get to know each other. It's called twenty questions. You can start."

She gave him an irritated, yet quizzical, glance. "I've never heard of it."

He looked surprised. "Really? Well, the idea is that you get to ask me any twenty questions you want and I have to answer truthfully."

"Sounds stupid. I pass."

He looked at her in a way that could only be called exasperation. "Fine. I'll start. Question one: what's your favourite colour?"

She answered without thinking. "Red."

"Good. Nice colour. Alright, question two: where are you from? Fire Nation, obviously, but what city or town?"

She turned away again, unsure if she should answer. "Sozin."

His eyebrow quirked. "The capital, huh? A city girl. I guess that says something…" The last part was muttered under his breath but she heard it.

"What was that?" She asked sharply.

"Err… nothing. Question three: Parents? Siblings?"

Her eyebrows snapped together angrily. "I'll have you know that I never agreed to this!" Her knuckles had whitened where she gripped the rug tightly. Well, as tightly as she could manage, anyways.

Zhi gave her a contemplative look. It made her slightly nervous to imagine what he might be thinking. "Okay, we can come back to question three. Question four…"

Azula sighed. He was relentless, truly. But, really, he _was _Fire Nation, after all.

---*0()0*---

_Ah, what a refreshing nights sleep!_ Was the first thought that Masuke had upon waking.

After staying up, not too indecently he'd thought, to tend to his patient, Masuke had taken his time getting to sleep. He'd read a few old tomes containing medical information that he was in the process of updating for the medical library and caught up on developments made in the Northern Water Tribe on a few more complex medical procedures. He had also visited the kitchens to scribble down a list of things that would be appropriate for his new patient to eat since her stomach wouldn't be ready for anything heavy for a couple of days at least. The moon had been approaching the horizon rather rapidly though no light could yet be seen in the distance when he had finally turned in. Early enough, really.

From the current air temperature he could tell the sun was well and truly up though it wasn't even an eighth of the way across the sky.

Despite the still early hour, he decided to find some sort of consideration for his patient and rise early.

He grinned to himself and stretched. It was one of his earliest days since he'd been a medical apprentice. Wouldn't his own apprentices be surprised that he'd beat them!

Rolling rather lethargically to his feet, Masuke covered a yawn as he reached for his coat. With a small twist of his wrist the morning frost fell away from the robe. He donned it before slipping into his fur covered boots. Another twist and the light icicles broke off. Water bending was so practical, really.

Masuke had felt so dedicated last night all of a sudden that he hadn't even gone home from the medical clinic. Though now that he thought about it, it may have been his lazier tendencies in disguise… He shrugged. No matter. He had no moral qualms about lying to himself about something like this. So. Feeling rather pleased with himself, he pushed aside the 'door' of the ICU room, and stepped into the brightly lit corridor courtesy of the skylights in the roof. He thought the day was warming up quite nicely from the brief chill of the day before. It was now a pleasant temperature; almost warm enough to divest himself of his coat after all.

He whistled a little as he made his way down to the ER room. He passed Zhi's room on the way and blinked when he discovered it was empty. The guy was already up? Huh. How odd. Breakfast wouldn't even be served for another fifteen minutes or so. And that meant it was _early_. Breakfast usually sat at his door under a protective cover for a while to keep it warm until he was ready to get up. That was usually solved when his assistant rolled him out of bed with many sighs and comments of exasperation. His assistant wouldn't be here for another half hour or more. Perhaps it was a sign that today just wasn't going to get any better.

But he didn't let his dour thoughts dampen his mood. No, until proven otherwise, today was a good day. He continued to amble down the hallway, wondering absently if his feisty patient had awoken yet. He doubted it. Her body needed the rest. And he had every intention of making sure it got it.

When he stepped into the ER room he paused mid-stride. Zhi was sitting by the girl pallet and talking quite amicably. She was glowering at him but not ripping his head off. Damn. No fair. He knew he should be grateful she was co-operating to some extent but he was also a bit jealous that Zhi had managed what he, her medic, could not. Congenial conversation.

Despite it, he plastered a smile on his face and made his way over.

---*0()0*---

The persistent bastard had managed to make it up to question eight minus question three which she had skipped. He hadn't mentioned it again for which she was rather relieved. She didn't want to talk about such things at that moment. He'd asked her about pets and she had mentioned the turtle-ducks (foregoing to mention that they'd been on far from friendly terms…), he'd asked about her favourite food and she mentioned the carnival fire flakes and curried eggs and venison. Other questions followed the same pattern of useless monotony that she was _sure_ he couldn't possibly care about or remember later on.

He was currently telling her about the aid efforts he had been involved in of late. A topic she definitely didn't want to be on. And so she was cultivating all the patience she possessed and waiting for something, _anything _to save her from his meaningless talking. It was obvious that he held her brother in high regard though he had yet to criticise her father. She was sure it was coming, though. At some point. Her fists clenched and she fought not to grind her teeth in irritation.

Then, unfortunately, her distraction came in the form of the person she did _not_ want to see right at that moment. She saw him pause in the doorway, observing them, his eyes not betraying what he was thinking, even to her. Zhi noticed and followed his gaze over his shoulder to see the medic now walking towards them.

"Ah! Masuke, good morning!" He turned back to her and smiled. It was a smile that threatened and promised at the same time. His voice was almost sickeningly sweet. "Now, just as we practiced, Mae."

She tried to hold his gaze in defiance but his steady, unwavering confidence got under her skin. She growled slightly before turning her gaze to the medic. "Good morning…"

Zhi's eyes flashed a warning.

She bit back a snarl and ground out, "Masuke."

The medic stopped and looked at her startled. "Good morning, Mae. I can see you're feeling better."

Zhi sat back and gave her a satisfied look.

He proceeded to the other side of her, across from Zhi. "Since you seem to be on the way to recovery, I bet you're tired of lying like that."

Azula gave a small nod. Masuke saw and smiled at it.

"Okay, just let me get that for you." He slipped one arm to press warmly against her back and raised her slightly forward before water bending with his other hand so the bed rose into a comfortable sitting position. "There you go. Breakfast should arrive shortly. I know it's early, but—"

That. Was. It. Azula turned to him angrily. "I've been waiting for _hours_. Is it just you or are all water benders completely incompetent? You've been lazily sleeping the day away while I've been out here starving and _freezing_!" She heard a sharp intake of breath from Zhi.

"Sweetheart…"

Masuke, infuriatingly, remained almost completely unruffled. He even laughed. "_Hours_? What type of person rises with the sun, eh? Surely not all those in the Fire Nation?" He rubbed his head sheepishly. "I thought it was a habit of fire benders. Besides, because your body isn't fully healed I assumed you would sleep for a long time. It needs to rejuvenate itself."

Zhi's irritation at her rudeness lessened slightly at Masuke's casual brush off at her minor temper tantrum. Still, he wasn't going to let her get away with these all the time. She was still a child in his eyes.

"Tch. Fine." Azula relented slightly, still a bit miffed at his seemingly total lack of concern for her complaints. "Just don't let it happen again."

He laughed. "Whatever you say, princess. But I'm not getting up this early every day just to check on you."

She glanced sharply at him, her temper rising. "Why not?"

He snorted. "I'll get one of my apprentices to do it. I was just feeling nice this morning, that's all."

"Mae," Zhi admonished at seeing her indignant expression. "Be a little more grateful. This man saved your life and he _is_ the head of the infirmary here so you need to show a little respect."

Her golden irises snapped to him. "You're not my father. Stop acting like it." Unfortunately it came less defiant and more sulky. This certainly wasn't her day. When she could move and firebend again she'd give these two arrogant men a piece of her mind. No one ordered her around and got away with it.

"Well, this has been a nice start to the day." Masuke commented pleasantly.

Zhi grimaced. "Sorry, Masuke, she seems to have a severe attitudinal problem." He glared at Azula who sniffed disdainfully and looked away. She didn't know why disapproval from this man, whom she barely knew, affected her so much. But it did.

"Nah, it's alright. She did sustain head trauma—" Azula glared at him and swore she saw a small smirk tug at the corner of his mouth. "—and it's not like she's you daughter, after all."

"No," he admitted, "but she is from my nation and it's rather shameful that our young show so much disrespect. Especially to two relative strangers."

Masuke chuckled slightly and was about to speak when Azula cut him off rather rudely, even she had to admit.

"Excuse me, but could you not talk about me as if I'm not sitting right here?"

They blinked. While the comment was meant to be scathing, both men noticed something. _Excuse me_. Such a thing had never left her mouth in the brief time they had spoken to her. On both sides.

"Well, well." Masuke grinned. "So the little princess does have some manners after all."

Azula scowled. "I do not! I have no reason for manners. They merely clutter conversation that could be straight to the point."

Her mood didn't improve an iota when Masuke had the nerve to guffaw at her words. The insolence, indeed! "Is that so?" He asked, obviously mocking as he was still chuckling.

"Yes!" She snapped at him. Her face burned at their combined effort to step on the edges of her pride which was already frayed enough.

Zhi noticed her humiliation and decided he'd had enough of teasing her for the moment. He didn't think she'd be able to take much more before completely snapping at them. His sympathy was small, however. She had brought most of it on herself and deserved to be taken down a few steps from her pedestal. She had been nothing but rude and unhelpful since she had awoken. And since she had Masuke had both seemed to know each other already he guessed that this wasn't the first time she had awoken since she had been here. Perhaps while he was sleeping. He was almost grateful now that he hadn't been up. If this was her attitude after a night of rest and contemplation he hated to see her when she was disoriented and irritated. Oh, wait. He'd already been there once. Which she didn't seem to recall, quite conveniently.

At that moment, all three turned as they heard the sound of footsteps crunching through the snow towards the infirmary. Masuke sighed and pushed himself to his feet slowly. "Sounds like breakfast."

Zhi watched as Masuke, all fluid motions, brought up two small benches. One in front of Zhi between him and the pallet and one in front of himself on the girl's other side. He saw out of the corner of his eye, Mae also watching the fire bender's movements. But not with the same curiosity he was. Her eyes were half-lidded and bored. He had expected her to show at least a small amount of fascination at the water bending since it was so different to the way fire bender's executed their movements. But she showed nothing at all to say that it interested her in the least. Huh. Maybe she really didn't care about much at all.

"I'll be right back." Masuke said as he headed off. True to his word, he returned from the hallway mere moments later with two fur rugs just like last time. He entered at the same time the assistant did. The woman was young, probably around Masuke's age with long, straight black hair. Her skin had a porcelain smoothness to it and was pale in complexion. Her features were angular and regal. If it weren't for the Water Tribe clothing of hideous dark blue and white, Azula would have thought she'd come straight from the Fire Nation.

When she sighted Masuke her eyes widened considerably. "Oh, goodness!" Her voice was clear and sweet. Azula was instantly jealous. She could see how the woman could make any man fall all over her just from listening to her speak. It wasn't the same cute voice that Ty Lee had, but a sophisticated, warm tone. "What are you doing up this early, Masuke?"

Masuke grinned. "Good morning, Naomi. I had a patient, if that explains anything."

"No, of course it doesn't, sir." She replied good-naturedly.

"Oi, Naomi," A deep, but young voice called from behind her tall figure. Azula was slightly startled. She wasn't aware that anyone else had entered the room. The boy standing behind her tried to nudge forward. "Let me through. I think I'm hallucinating. Did Masuke just say 'good morning'?" He succeeded in shouldering past when Naomi took a graceful step to the side and Azula was met with a grinning face. His hair was dark brown rather than black and cut so that it just brushed the bottom of his ear lobes. His eyes were dark blue, sparkling with mischief and good-humour. His demeanour of good-cheer made him look young, but the lack of baby fat on his face and the light stubble gracing his cheeks suggested otherwise. His eyes lighted on Masuke's face and his grin widened. "So it's true! Absolutely amazing." He walked forward with a covered dish identical to Naomi's in his hands. "We did exactly as you wanted. No heavy foods for our young patient over here…" He gave Azula a once-over before frowning. "Hey Masuke," He directed his frown to the medic. "What have you done to her? She's still skin and bones."

His remarks met an irritated look on Masuke's face as he moved to hand Zhi a fur before spreading his own. "She only came in last night. I haven't had a lot of time to work on her. She'll look much better by the end of the day, trust me."

Naomi moved, or rather glided, up behind the young boy. "Where do you want these, Masuke?"

"Oh, yours can go right by Zhi over there." He said, pointing in Zhi's direction before beckoning to the boy. "Bring yours here to me, Tobi."

Tobi grinned. "You sure you don't want me to feed her, Masuke?" Azula's sharp eyes caught the leer he sent in her direction. "I'm sure she'll be quite pretty after she's put on some weight."

Azula didn't appreciate the comment. "Come any closer and I'll break both your legs." Her tone was cold and conversational. After all, it was just a fact. He could keep his hands to himself. Usually she'd be rather flattered at such a hansom mans approval but something in his gaze suggested that he was far from a gentleman giving a lady a well-deserved compliment.

Masuke's brow rose slightly. "Sorry, Tobi, I don't think it'd work out very well."

Tobi just winked at her. "C'mon, don't be like that." He turned to Masuke. "She sounds like two handfuls already."

Masuke rolled his eyes at the young mans antics. He didn't approve of Tobi's seemingly carefree attitude towards women. Of course, the young man hadn't actually done anything _inappropriate _as such, but his innuendos and suggestiveness bordered on the obscene.

"Just put the food down and get lost, Tobi."

The words would have been harsh if Masuke's tone hadn't been so dry.

Tobi took it in good stride. "Aw, you just want her all to yourself. Greed is a vice, you know."

The comment had been fairly mild compared to Tobi's usual lewdness but it still grated Masuke the wrong way. He had no tolerance for jokes that degraded a person's value in such a way.

Masuke walked over and snatched the tray from Tobi. "Now you have no reason to be here. Get out already."

The boy sighed dramatically, relenting. "Well, fine." He gave a gallant bow in Azula's direction. "Have a pleasant day, milady."

Azula's eyebrows rose at that. Well, at least he had some sort of decorum and the proper amount of respect to her upon leaving the room.

As soon as his footsteps retreated Masuke rolled his eyes and gave Azula an apologetic look. "Sorry about him. I hope he didn't offend you; he's our resident womaniser."

Azula scowled and looked away, remembering that she was currently being disagreeable with this particular water bender. Her gaze found the willowy woman who was moving gracefully over towards where Zhi was seated. Masuke followed her gaze.

"Ah, I don't believe you've been formally introduced, Mai."

Azula's eyes didn't waver from where she watched the woman place Zhi's breakfast before him

Masuke made the introductions in a way that Azula thought was less than appropriate. "Mai—Naomi; Naomi, this is Mai."

Naomi straightened and gave Azula a warm smile. "So this is the young lady, I've heard about." Her melodic voice enraptured Azula and left a warm, fuzzy feeling in her bones. It was soothing to listen to and she couldn't help but like the woman. Despite her earlier impression.

Masuke saw her expression change from a scowl to what could almost be called contentment and mentally swore. It wasn't fair! _He_ had spent the longest with her while she had been awake, _he_ had tended to her in the night, _he_ had healed her wounds the night before and _he_ was the one who had risen at some _un-_godly hour to check on Her Ungratefulness! So why was she getting along with the other two (at least, relatively) and not him? Tch.

He had a great bedside manner. Patients told him so all the time! It was impossible to dislike him! He vaguely realised that he was whining like a child but gave up the thought as too truthful to dwell on.

He gave a mental shrug as he settled in for breakfast.

**Oh, okay. So that chapter ending sucked. Well, the truth was that this whole 'need to update thing' was just getting ridiculous. So. I sucked it in and told myself it didn't need to b perfect (since ur such a gr8 bunch or ppl). **

**Oh, I should b starting a collaboration fic with Prince Suzaku for Avatar soon. Don't worry. He'll keep us on tracks for updates. I hope. **

**Review!**

**Gabza**


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